


The Ghost

by nancymay27



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: M/M, Shadowhunter Magnus Bane, forgotten Alec Lightwood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 36,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23556331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nancymay27/pseuds/nancymay27
Summary: Magnus is a Shadowhunter and trained for 18 years. After his 18th birthday he is sent to the New York institute to train there. He meets the Lightwoods and become fast friends with Isabelle. He hears whispers about an older Lightwood son, who is not seen much around the institute. Some say that he vanished but that you can see him if you look closely enough or you know where to look for him. Magnus is curious about what he hears about the eldest Lightwood and decides to look into the mystery that surrounds him. What he learns shocks him and sets him on a path that did not expect to travel down.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 28
Kudos: 123





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea that I had and I hope that I can do it justice. It will take awhile for Magnus and Alec to meet. I am sure there will be a lot of questions but they will be answered in time. I don't know how often I will be able to update, but I will try to update as often as I can. Please enjoy this.

He couldn’t remember his name. He had been stuck in this place for as long as he could remember. The only interaction he had with others was when they brought him food and the hours he was allowed to train. He couldn’t speak to anyone, unless it related to his training. This had been his life for as long as he could remember. He knew it had been years since had last talked to anyone beyond anything related to training.

He hadn’t been outside in just as long. He could no longer remember what the sun felt like on his face or the smell of rain after a storm. He didn’t even really think about those things very often. He was at least allowed books, the books allowed him to escape his day to day life. His books allowed him to live and hope that maybe one day thins would get better for him.

He had tried to escape many time before. He wasn’t successful, he was always caught and brought back to where he was being held. He was always punished for trying to leave and told that even if he made it out he had nowhere to go and no one to help him. He still kept planning an escape because anything had to be better than the way he was currently living. He kept dreaming and hoping for a day that he would be let out of his prison, a day that he could finally escape and live a life outside of all that he had ever known. Unbeknownst to him that day would come sooner than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who do you think the mystery person is? Why do you think he has been taken? All will be revealed as we continue on.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter. We get to meet Magnus and learn a little bit about him. I hope you enjoy and thank you for the kudos that I got for the prologue.

The day had come, Magnus had learned all he could at the Jakarta Institute. It was time for him to spend the next two years living and training at another institute. He didn’t know where his new assignment was going to be, but he knew where he hoped to go. For the last 15 years he had heard all about the New York Institute and the shadowhunters who lived and worked there. He knew that New York was where the best shadowhunters trained and the current inquisitor had been the last head of the New York Institute. Besides providing the best shadowhunters, it was a center of the fashion world and that was where he wanted to be.

His parents had trained him from an early age and were instrumental in make the Jakarta Institute one of the better ones. Magnus knew all this and knew that when he left all eyes would be on him and what he could do. He wanted to make his parents proud and continue to be the best shadowhunter he could be.

Magnus was currently in the training room working with his best friend and parabatai Ragnor Fell. The two had grown up together and were inseparable. They were the two best fighters in the Jakarta Institute and everyone knew that where one went the other would follow. Magnus stood facing Ragnor waiting for the other to make a move. The two had fought together so often that they could anticipate the moves of the other. They were so in sync with each other and that is what made them an unstoppable force in the field.

“Magnus, you know this is only go to end one way right?” asked Ragnor circling his parabatai and looking for an opening.

“Yes, the same way it always does. With me as the victor,” replied Magnus moving forward a few steps.

“You don’t always win and this time I will be the victor,” Ragnor stated as he moved back all the while keeping his eyes on his opponent.

Magnus scoffed and moved forward while his right had moved as though to strike Ragnor. Ragnor moved to block Magnus’ attack and instigate one of his own. Magnus backed up and circled his friend, preventing Ragnor from completing his attack. The two kept up the cat and mouse game for quite some time until both had to admit, at least this time, that it was a draw. Magnus wiped his brow and looked at Ragnor, he knew his friend was tired and this would be the end of their training session for the day. They needed to get cleaned up and prepared for their shifts in the operation center in 30 minutes. Magnus gathered up his stuff and prepared to leave the training room.

“Magnus, Ragnor you are both wanted in Asmodeus’ office immediately,” stated another shadowhunter walking into the training room.

“Do you know what it is for?” Magnus inquired as he started to leave the room.

“He just said that he needed to speak with the two of you immediately. Didn’t give me any other information than that,” replied the same shadowhunter.

Magnus and Ragnor nodded at the other shadowhunter and left the training room. The two looked at each other as they walked down the hall to Asmodeus’ office. Neither was completely sure what the man wanted from them, but knew they would find out soon enough. They quickly arrived at his office and Magnus knocked to alert Asmodeus of their presence. They received permission to enter and quickly opened the door.

“Ah Magnus, Ragnor how good of you to come so quickly,” stated Asmodeus standing up to greet the two.

“Well we were told to that you needed to see us immediately and so figured we shouldn’t keep you waiting,” remarked Ragnor, as he and Magnus took a seat in front of the desk.

Asmodeus took a look at the parabatai before continuing.

“I wanted to see you to talk about your placement for the next two years. As you know part of serving in other institutes is to meet fellow shadowhunters but it is also to learn how they work and how they institute they work out runs. Every head of an institute has a different way of running their perspective institute.

“A lot of thought has gone into where to place the two of you. The Clave know that the two of you work well together and that is part of what makes placing you so hard. It has been decided that you will be split up for the next six months, this is to see how you work without having your parabatai by your side constantly. After six months you will be evaluated and then a decision will be made about the remainder of your placement. It is very likely that if you do well without the other that you can finish the rest of your placement together, but I cannot say for certain how that will work out.”

Asmodeus gave them a moment to think about this and what it would mean for them. Sure the two had spent time a part since becoming parabatai but never the six months they were being asked to do now. Asmodeus picked up a couple of files off his desk and handed one to each of the boys, in it was their placement for the next six months.

Asmodeus gave them another moment before he started talking again, “Ragnor as you can see you will be spending the next six months at the London Institute. It was decided that this would be a good fit for you. You will work closely with Lydia Branwell, she is the head of security, but also next in line to take over as the head of the London Institute. I know your strengths lie in strategy and security and Lydia is the best out there. You will learn a lot from her.

“As for you Magnus, you will be serving at the New York Institute. Your interests and desires in improving our relationship with the downworlders is what made this decision easy as to where to put you. You will work closely with Isabelle Lightwood, chief medical examiner and weapons master; as well as Jace Herondale the current head of the institute. The two have been instrumental in creating many new councils to improve downworld relations in New York. They are young but they are good at what they do. My hope is that you both will learn a lot at each of the institutes you have been assigned to.

“Please read the information in the files and familiarize yourself with who you will be working with. You will each have just two days to get ready before you leave for your new institutes. Do either of you have any questions?”

Magnus was shocked, ye he had hoped to go to New York, but he didn’t think he would be separated from Ragnor. It was a lot to take in and he only had two days to prepare to leave. He looked over at Ragnor who just sat there in shock. The two regarded each other and knew that even if they were separated they would always be there for the other.

“I just have one question,” stated Magnus looking up from the file in front of him, “Will I still be able to talk to Ragnor even though we will be at different institutes?”

“Yes you can still talk to one another and send each other fire messages, but it is likely that you won’t see each other for the next six months,” replied Asmodeus looking at the two boys fondly.

He was going to miss them. They worked hard, but they were also always getting themselves into one scrape or another. He knew this would be good for them, but he also worried as to how this would out since they were so close.

“If you don’t have any other questions then Ragnor you are free to go. Magnus there are still a few things I wish to discuss with you,” Asmodeus stated.

“I don’t have any other questions and I’m sure if I do that I should be able to find the answers,” Ragnor said standing up to leave the room.

Magnus was unsure of what else Asmodeus needed to talk to him about. He remained seated and hoped that he hadn’t done anything to get himself into trouble yet again.

“Magnus, I just wanted to say how proud of you your mother and I are. I know you really wanted to go to New York and I think you can make a difference there. What I need to talk to you about is something that Isabelle and Jace asked me to bring up. There are a lot of downworlders who come in and out of the institute there, more so than any other institute in the world. The two have done a lot to improve relations there with the downworld since their parents move to Idris full-time. They want to make sure that you aren’t going to do anything to destroy those relationships. I know you, but to Jace and Isabelle you are an unknown coming in and they can’t know that your interest in downworlders has to do with working to continue to improve on what they have done. Please keep that in mind over the next little bit and do everything you can to put them at ease after you arrive,” Asmodeus explained.

“I understand Father and I will continue to do all I can to make you and mother proud of me. I cannot wat to get to New York and learn from those I will be working with and to also hopefully do what I can to make a difference,” Magnus stated looking up at his father.

“That’s all I can ask of you. You are free to go, but remember your mother and I expect you for dinner tonight so please don’t forget.”

Magnus assured his father that he wouldn’t forget about dinner and would be there on time. He hadn’t made it the last few times because he had been out on patrol, but he understood that this would be one of the last times he could spend any time with his parents. He wanted to sit and talk with them about the mundane things going on in their lives and just spend some time with them before he left. Magnus had a good relationship with his parents and he was going to miss them when he left, but he was also looking forward to leaving and seeing what else was out there in the world. He had only ever left Jakarta to go to Idris, and while Idris was beautiful, he wanted to see what else was in the world.

__________________

He heard the door open for the final time that day. He knew they were bringing him his dinner. He had to eat it quickly or else he wouldn’t get it all. There was only 20 minutes allotted for his mealtimes and he used them wisely. When he had first been imprisoned, he hadn’t realized the importance of eating quickly and would just take his time eating. He quickly learned that if he wanted to eat all his food then he needed to do so quickly. He also couldn’t save any of his food. His guards would check him after mealtime to make sure that there wasn’t any food hidden in his room or on his person. He had also learned that lesson the hard way.

If you asked him, he had learned a lot of his lessons the hard way. He didn’t understand why he was imprisoned but at least he was fed regularly and allowed to move around. He was kept under lock and key and meals were pushed through a slot in the bottom of the door. He was chained up as he was taking to and from his training sessions. The measures had been put in place after his numerous attempts to escape. He had been discouraged to try it again after his last attempt, but that didn’t stop him from formulating another plan and hoping he would have the chance to make another attempt at escape.

The one thing he was not allowed to do in all that he had been granted was make use of his magic. The room where he was kept had dampening runes written on the walls and he had ankle cuffs and wrist cuffs he would wear when not in his room that would dampen his magic. He had received only a single rune in his life and that is when it was discovered that he was different from the others around him. The rune itself didn’t harm him, but it reacted differently on him they it had on the others who had received this rune at the same time as him. He could vaguely remember the ceremony, but he couldn’t remember everything and that is what bothered him. He wanted to remember more details and he wanted to be able to live outside the two rooms that he spent all his time in.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy it.

Isabelle Lightwood headed to the weapons room to start her inventory. She took pride in being the youngest weapons master to have ever been named at the New York institute. Her knowledge of weapons far surpassed that of the previous weapons master, and she wanted to keep obtaining more knowledge. She had received a message from the Clave that a new shadowhunter would be arriving in a couple of days. Magnus Bane from the Jakarta Institute came highly recommended and it was mentioned in his file that he was interested in downworld relations, she just wasn’t sure if that meant improving their relationships with the downworlders or causing them to take a few steps back from the progress they had made up to this point.

Isabelle wanted to make a good impression on him, but she also wanted to be cautious around the new shadowhunter. Jace wanted her to check that the weapons he preferred were in the weapons room and also make sure that his room was ready for when he would arrive. This was the first time in two years that a new shadowhunter was being allowed to come and stay at the institute. Things had been different since her older brother had disappeared. Her and Jace had searched everywhere for him even though their parents told him that if they hadn’t heard anything within a week of him disappearing then he was most likely dead. Isabelle didn’t believe them and never gave up looking for her brother. There had been possible sightings of him around the institute, but no one was completely sure if it was actually him. He hadn’t actually been seen since shortly after his twelfth birthday. Isabelle missed her brother, but she couldn’t dwell on that at the moment. She needed to prepare for the arrival of Magnus Bane. 

“Izzy, are you in here?” Jace asked entering the weapons room.

“Where else would I be? You wanted me to make sure that Magnus’ preferred weapons were here. I haven’t had a chance to look through all the weapons we have here. Although I would imagine that Magnus would be bringing his own weapons with him,” Izzy replied looking through the swords that were in the room.

“That would make sense that he would be bringing his own weapons. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that,” Jace stated helping Izzy look through the swords.

“Don’t worry about it you have a lot on your plate, and you are doing your best to make sure that the institute is still standing. You have been doing a great job in the last few months that you have been the head and you were name head for a reason. Keep believing in yourself and the institute will be fine. You have made a lot of changes, changes that mom and dad wouldn’t have made and they have been good changes. The downworld here in New York has never been better and I think it will continue to get better the more changes you make. As for Magnus it makes more sense that he will bring his own weapons. Even if we were to have some that are similar to his here, they aren’t going to feel the same as what he used for years,” Izzy explained.

“Izzy, I don’t know what I would do without you. If there was a way I could have you as my second instead of Underhill, I would do it. I know that I could have chosen you, but mom strongly encouraged me not to saying that it would be seen as favoritism.”

“Look, regardless of what mom or anyone else says I understand why you didn’t pick me, and I’m not hurt by it. I have enough responsibilities being the chief medical examiner and the weapons master here. I think Underhill was actually the perfect choice for your second, he actually helps keep you from acting without thinking and that is actually a good thing. Both of us are reckless and don’t always think about the consequences of our actions.”

“You have a point and I agree with you about appointing Underhill as my second. I really wish that Alec was still here, but I know he isn’t, and he may not be for a very long time. I miss him so much Iz and I know that if he hadn’t disappeared, we would have become parabatai and he would be the head of the institute. I just hope that wherever he is he is doing ok.”

“I hope he is. I just keep thinking that mom and dad know more about his disappearance then they are telling us. I know that they say they don’t know anything other than he received his first mark and went missing slowly after that. Well we can keep talking about Alec but there are other things that need our attention at the moment such as getting ready for Magnus to come and the next downworld council meeting.”

“Very true. Well thank you for the pep talk and we will keep looking for Alec even though there are other things going on as well. You have a lot on your plate, and we don’t have a lot of time to concentrate on searching for our brother. Well enough about that but you came here for a reason besides checking on weapons for Magnus. When is the next council meeting?”

“Yes, I actually did need you for something and it has to do with the next council meeting. Underhill and I have to go to Idris for some business tonight and won’t be back in time for the meeting. I was wondering if you could head it up. Since it is earlier in the day the vampires won’t be able to attend but it was the only time that would work for the warlocks, werewolves, and seelies. I talked to Raphael and he said it would be fine, but to just send a representative to meet with him tomorrow evening. I was hoping that you would be able to oversee the meeting tomorrow and then meet with Raphael in the evening.”

“Jace I can do the meeting tomorrow, but I won’t be able to meet with Raphael tomorrow night. I have a meeting with Catarina about the recent demon activity. She has a shift at the hospital right after the meeting tomorrow and will be available to meet after her shift tomorrow to let me know what she found out about the markings that were at the scene of the last demon attack. Clary can come to the meeting with me tomorrow and she should be able to meet with Raphael to go over what was discussed.”

“I’ll talk to Clary to see if she available to attend the council meeting with you and meet with Raphael tomorrow night. Thanks for being available for the meeting and for meeting with Catarina about the markings from the last demon attack. There is something about them that looks familiar, but I don’t know what it is yet. Well I have some things I need to take care of before I need to head to Idris in a few hours. I hope that everything will go well and good luck with your preparations for Magnus. I think you should be getting a fire message from him sometime today to let you know what he needs and what he will be bringing with him.”

“Thanks bro and I’ll see you later. I have some inventory I need to finish up here and they some autopsies to finish down in the morgue. Let me know what Clary says about the meeting tomorrow and if she is available to meet with Raphael later. When I get the fire message from Magnus then I can finish the preparations for his arrival in two days.”

Jace left the weapons room shortly after that. He had some messages to respond to and he needed to talk to Clary about attending the council meeting tomorrow. He was feeling the pressure of being the head of the institute along with being a Herondale. It hadn’t been that long ago that he had found about his family and it was still taking him awhile to adjust to all the changes that he had gone through. At least he had Clary and Isabelle to help with everything. He wished that Alec was there to help him through all of this or even take some of the burden off his shoulders. He knew thinking that was unfair to him and to Alec but there has been a part of him missing since Alec’s disappearance. He knew he needed to let go and move on, but it was hard to do that with someone who had been your best friend and brother.

_________________

He heard footsteps coming closer. He knew that it was time for his training, the sparring part of the training wasn’t so bad, but he enjoyed the time that he got to spend with his bow and arrows. It was a time for him to practice and just focus on the target. He didn’t have to listen to the instructions of his trainer and it really just him and his bow. He was a good archer and had started training with the bow and arrow when he was ten, two years before the day that everything changed. 

He wasn’t sure how much longer he could take this. He had to keep thinking and planning for the future and when he could make another chance to escape. He wanted to know what was outside of the two rooms where he spent the majority of his life. He didn’t know anything about his siblings or what was going on with the institute. He hoped that his parents would have a change of heart in the way they interacted with downworlders. It had always bothered him when he would hear the way his parents would to talk to and interact with downworlders. They always talked to them as though they were better than downworlders. He didn’t think they were better than downworlders. The whole purpose of being a shadowhunter was to protect mundanes and downworlders. Not all downworlders could protect themselves against demons, they didn’t have the strength or the same powers as other downworlders. 

He had hoped he could make the institute better when he got older and hopefully make a difference for those around him. He knew that there was a way out, there was just the small matter of him being able to find the way in time. He had been thinking and he figured all the other times that he had failed to escape it was because he couldn’t use his magic, if he could figure out a way to get rid of the shackles on his wrists and ankles. The best way to do that would be to find a way to get the keys or a stele to unlock the shackles. He didn’t think either of those were a possibility because he was watched so closely, but if he got the opportunity, he would take it.

He kept heading towards the training room and thought about all the possibilities of how he could escape. He knew he could keep thinking about it and the chance would come to him. Once he got to the training room, he immediately went to the center of the room to begin sparring. He knew that his opponent would arrive shortly and would be expecting him to be ready to go. He went through his warmup routine and waited for his opponent to arrive. He didn’t have to wait long, but when he looked up to begin sparring, he saw that his opponent was someone that he hadn’t trained with before. He didn’t know who this person was. He hadn’t seen him around and he wasn’t one of the regulars that he sparred against.

He actually wasn’t sure where they had found this guy. He didn’t even look like he would last ten minutes with him. The boy was tall and lanky, his brown hair falling in his face. He watched as the boy pushed his glasses up on his nose. He shook his head thinking that his captors had lost it, they didn’t think that this boy was really going to be a challenge for him did they.

“Listen up, this will be your new sparring partner for the next few weeks. You aren’t expected to beat him. You will actually be training him. If he is able to beat you by the end of four weeks, then you will have earned your freedom. If he cannot then you will remain our prisoner for as long as we decide to keep you. Think about this carefully and don’t set him to beat you, the fight has to be fair and he has to be able to beat you on his own. Do you understand?” asked his main guard.

“Yes, sir I understand. I will train him to beat me and hope to earn my freedom,” the boy responded looking at the main guard.

He didn’t realize that there would be an opportunity for him to earn his freedom. He didn’t think this was really possible, but he would train the boy to beat him and hope that the guard was telling the truth and finally he would be able to leave his prison. This may be his last chance for freedom, but he would still come up with a backup plan just in case they didn’t keep their word about if the boy beat him in a fight, he would be able to go free. He would bide his time and hope that the lanky boy would be able to beat him.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter for you. I hope that you all enjoy it. Thank you for the kudos and comments that you have left so far. As you know in the last chapter our mystery boy met someone new. In this chapter you will found out who the new character is. Magnus will probably meet Alec around chapter 9 or 10, for those who are curious.

Magnus quickly changed and headed to the operations center for his shift. He knew that he was a few minutes late but talking to his father and getting change had taken a bit longer than he had thought it would. He quickly took his spot at the observation desk. This had been his post the for the last week and he enjoyed looking over the computer screens and seeing where demon activity was at in the city. The consoles were set up so he could see where demon activity was the highest but also if there were downworlders or mundanes in trouble that weren’t always because of demon activity. He noticed that for the moment all was quiet out in the city. The early afternoons were quieter than late at night. Demon activity tended to increase the later in the day it got. Demons were stronger at night, the sunlight affected them, and they did their best to stay out of the sunlight.

While he was watching the consoles, he decided to go through the file that his father had given him. He wanted to learn all he could about the New York Institute and who he would be working with for the foreseeable future. He had heard many things about the New York Institute, but the most recent had been the appointment of Jace Herondale to institute head. He was the youngest of an institute at the age of 17, but he had made many changes in the way the institute was being run. He had implemented new policies with the way the shadowhunters at the institute interacted with the downworlders in the city. He had also created a downworld cabinet or council that held regular meetings about the care and concerns of the downworld community. 

Magnus started reading about his placement and learned more about Jace and Isabelle who he would be working closely with. He wanted to make sure he knew everything that he needed to before he arrived in New York.

Placement: New York Institute

Person of Contact: Isabelle Lightwood and Jace Herondale

Positions at the New York Institute: Isabelle is the Weapons Master and Chief Medical Examiner. Jace Herondale is the Head of the New York Institute

Report day: June 4th, 2009

Purpose of placement: To learn more about shadowhunters and how they work outside of your home institute. To learn more about the policies and procedures the New York Institute has put in place for interacting with the downworld community in the city.

Information about the Institute: One of the biggest institutes in the world. The first institute to work closely with downworlders on a consistent basis. Has come to see downworlders as beneficial part of the Shadow World and how they make positive contributions to the community. Jace Herondale is the youngest institute head at 17 years of age and Isabelle is the youngest weapons master that the Clave has seen at the age of 17. Both have made many positive contributions to the Shadow World, namely being a large part in helping to bring down Valentine Morgenstern and the Circle. Both played a large part in helping to stop the war and bring peace to the Shadow World.

Magnus stopped reading for a moment. He hadn’t realized that the two had helped to bring down Valentine when he tried to take out all downworlders a couple of years ago. He figured their appointments to the positions that they hold at the institute made more sense now. The two were good at what they did and helped to save the Shadow World from a mad man bent on taking out the entire downworld. Magnus knew that the war had brought about a lot of changes, but to realize that two shadowhunters just a little bit younger than him had helped with that gave him hope for the future. He wanted to help the Clave change and knew that being placed at the New York Institute was a good for him. He couldn’t wait to meet Jace and Isabelle and to be able to learn from them.

He knew that he needed to send Isabelle a fire message with what he would need upon his arrival at the institute. He had been thinking about and realized that most of what he would need he should be able to take with him, but he would have to check with his father before submitting a final list to Isabelle. He wanted to be able to take his own weapons that he had been using for the last few years. He was familiar with them and they felt natural in his hands. Seraph blades would be fine, he could use what they had in New York but his personal weapons he wanted with him. He continued to think about this and realized that all he really needed would be a place to lay his head and a decent sized closet for his clothes, other than that he should be able to get the rest of what he needed once he was in New York.

Magnus looked up when he felt someone next to him. He smiled when he saw Ragnor standing at the consoles next to him and knew that his friend had many things on his mind. He wondered why they were being split up, but knew the Clave had their reasons and hoped that the separation would only be for the first six months and not any longer than that. He didn’t think he could go longer than six months without his parabatai.

“What are you thinking about?” Ragnor asked

“Just thinking about our placements and the fact that we don’t be able to see each other for six months,” replied Magnus looking over at his friend.

“I know, that is going to be hard. We haven’t really been separated since we became parabatai. I think there is a reason why the Clave is sending us to different institutes, and I hope that we will be able to figure out why. What else did Asmodeus want to talk to you about?”

“He just wanted to pass along a concern from Jace and Isabelle. They have been working closely with downworld community in New York for the last couple of years and are concerned that I will come in and undo all their hard work. I’m not offended, I am an unknown person and they don’t know what I will bring to the table so to speak.”

“Makes sense and I can understand their concerns. I would feel the same way if I were in their position. Have you figured out what you are going to need once you get to New York? I’m only asking because of the vast wardrobe that you have here my friend. I don’t think you can take the whole thing with you. You won’t be in a bigger bedroom like you are here and able to have a larger closet than most people. I know that has to be a concern of yours and I hope that you will be able to survive with less.”

“I have thought about it. I just hope that I will get assigned to a bedroom that has decent sized closet and I can go from there. I know I can’t take all my clothes with me and not to mention I will be New York so I can always get more clothes while I am there. The fashion industry is bigger in New York and I look forward to being able to benefit from it. I need to talk to Asmodeus and see about my personal weapons though. I’m fairly sure that I will be able to take them, but I do want to double check on that before we leave. I guess I can ask him about it at dinner tonight.”

“I already talked to Lorenzo about my weapons and he was telling me that when we leave the institute the weapons that we use here can be taken with us. He explained that because they are our personal weapons it wouldn’t make sense to leave them here. We would want something with us that we know and our familiar with. Our weapons were custom made for us and wouldn’t really work as well for someone else. The seraph blades we will have to leave, but that isn’t a problem since all institutes have those on hand.”

“Well gee thanks Rag, I appreciate that. I guess that will be one less thing that I have to talk to my father about tonight. I was concerned about our weapons. I didn’t want to have to leave them and it does make sense that if they were made specifically for us that we would be able to take them with us. Have you had chance to look through your file yet?”

“I have, Lydia Branwell is a bit of a security genius and I am excited to be able to learn from her. Her family has been over the London Institute since the mid-1900s and she is set to follow in their footsteps of taking over for the current head when the time is right. She spent some time in New York working with Jace and Isabelle and learning from the previous head. Besides being a security genius, she also goes over a lot of different strategies for when they are out in the field. Many of her theories have been tried out and used by different institutes around the world. I’m excited to learn from her and hope that I won’t be a burden to her while I am there.”

“Rag, you won’t be a burden you are amazing at what you do and have improved security here in ways that my parents couldn’t have thought you would. They didn’t make a mistake in putting you as the second to the head of security. I know that no matter where we end up everything will work out. I’m a bit intimidated to be honest. I was reading through the file about New York and learned that both Isabelle and Jace played a big part in helping to bring Valentine down a few years ago. This is why they were appointed to such high positions at such a young age. I haven’t accomplished half of what they have, and they are younger than me.”

“Just because you haven’t helped to bring down a maniac doesn’t mean that you don’t have a lot to offer the Shadow World as well. You are great at what you do, and you will go on to do great things in the future. You have an amazing opportunity to learn from the two, so don’t let feelings of intimidation keep you from learning from them.”

“You’re right. I don’t need to let my insecurities stop me from learning from two amazing shadowhunters. There is always more to learn and do. I guess this is why the placements at other institutes are so important. If just stayed here Jakarta we wouldn’t have the opportunity to grow and learn. I need to send a fire message to Isabelle letting her know what I will need when I get there in a few days, can you cover for me for a minute?”

“Yeah, I can cover for you while you send that fire message. I don’t think anything will happen while you are away, but you never know.”

Magnus stepped away from the observation area to send a quick fire message to Isabelle Lightwood letting her know what he would need. She was quick to reply back letting him know that all would be ready for him when he arrived. She also mentioned that she was looking forward to meeting him and hoped that they would work well together. Magnus hoped for the same thing.

__________________

He stood in the center of the room facing he opponent. This was a new experience for him, since he had never been allowed to interact with his opponents for more than the time it took him to train with them. He had never trained anyone and was unsure on whether or not he would be a good teacher. He knew that he needed to be if was going to have any chance of earning his freedom from his prison. He looked at the boy who couldn’t have been much older than him. The boy looked like he had never been in a fight before in his life and he wondered if he would be able to train the boy successfully.

“The first thing we are going to start with is how to stand. In any fight your position and posture are key to being able to keep your opponent at bay. This will also allow you to become more familiar with your body and what it can do. Just remember your body is a weapon and that will help you even when you don’t have anything other than your hands and feet to fight with. Stand up straight and look at me,” he directed as he walked around the boy.

Looking at the brunette boy in front of him it was easy to see that he had good body posture when he was standing, and this would help him greatly when he started moving around more. 

“What is your name?” he asked the boy.

“My name is Simon Lewis. What is your name?” Simon inquired still standing straight.

“Simon, that is a good name. I don’t remember my name. I haven’t heard it in years and maybe if I were to hear it, it would come back to me. The guards just call the prisoner. You may call me sir or teacher. I don’t really like to be called the prisoner, but that is what I am to the guards,” he replied moving Simon’s arms in front of him.

“Those will work for me. I wish I had name to call you but maybe that will come in time,” Simon stated moving his arms as he was directed to do.

The two worked together for hours. Simon was a quick study and did all that was asked of him. He was shown how to block and throw a punch. He had him practice the moves over and over so that Simon could develop his muscle memory. He knew from years of practice that the more you practiced a move the easier it would be for your body to recall it when the time came.

Time passed quickly and before the two knew it, it was time for him to be returned to his room. He followed the guards to his room and was told that his dinner would be brought to him shortly. Once in his room his thoughts turned to Simon and how he could prepare him to beat him in a fight. He knew that this would be his only chance to win his freedom this way and he wanted to make sure that he went over every aspect of what the fight would entail. He also thought about his other plans for escape, he knew he needed a back-up plan in case Simon wasn’t able to beat him. For the first time in many years he felt hope and knew that things were going to change soon for him.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter for you all. I hope that you enjoy it. I think I underestimated myself and what needed to happen before Magnus and Alec meet for the first time, so it will not be in chapter 9 or 10. I'm not sure when it will be but I will let you all know when I figure it out. Thank you to everyone for your comments and kudos. I really appreciate it and appreciate knowing that someone out there is reading this.

Magnus had spent his last two days in Jakarta making sure that he had everything that he would need for his arrival in New York. He had spent time with his parents and with Ragnor, he was unsure of when he would see any of them again. He was looking forward to his time in New York, but also knew that it would be an adjustment period for him. He had packed up his room and sent most of his belongings ahead to New York. The last few things he needed to prepare were his weapons and those he would take with him in a few hours. Ragnor would be leaving before him, not by much, but still it was before him. Magnus had held out hope that they would be able to travel to London together and then he would go to New York from there, but it was not to be.

Since the two had never been to either London or New York their mentors would be travelling to Jakarta with the High Warlock of Brooklyn, Catarina Loss and then leaving from there. Magnus understood the basics of travelling through a portal although he had only been to Idris and Jakarta, so he knew that you couldn’t portal to a place that you hadn’t been to before. This was the reason why their mentors were being brought to Jakarta. Catarina had been to Jakarta many years ago and had been willing to come and help the two shadowhunters travel to their new locations.

Magnus went over his list one last time and knew that he wasn’t forgetting anything. He was nervous for what the future held, but he was also excited. He wanted to travel and see new places and he wanted to be able to learn from those that he came in contact with. He was a very curious person and had a thirst for knowledge. This thirst for knowledge played a large part in his interests in the downworld. Their world was so different from his own, yet he had been trained and taught to protect them and mundanes from a very early age. He learned from a very early age that not everyone could protect themselves and he was to be there to help those that couldn’t protect themselves. He was proud of the part he played in everything and hoped to be able to play a bigger part.

He stood out in the courtyard with his parents and Ragnor waiting for Catarina, Lydia, and Isabell to arrive. He knew that they should be arriving soon if Isabelle’s fire message was correct. It would have been earlier but there had been somethings that had come up that needed Lydia’s attention before they could leave London. Magnus took a quick look at Ragnor and could feel his nerves through their bond. He was sure that Ragnor could feel his own nerves as well. The two were to be separated for at least six months and didn’t know if after that they would be able to work together again. He already had Ragnor’s contact information in London and knew that he could talk or message his parabatai as needed. He was grateful that he didn’t have to cut off all contact with Ragnor.

“Are you ready for this friend?” Magnus asked coming to stand next to his friend.

“As ready as I can be. I never thought this day would actually come and now here it is,” Ragnor stated looking around the courtyard.

“I understand. I remember when we became parabatai and spoke the words of the parabatai oath. I know we are not going to the same place, but you will always be with me. You are my brother and you will ways be with me no matter where we are. I hope you know that. I will always feel you no matter how far apart we are and if you need me please don’t hesitate to ask me. I will be here for you always no matter what,” Magnus explained reaching to take Ragnor in a hug.

“I will always be with you and you will always be with me. We are each a part of each other and that is never going to change. You are my brother and you will always be my brother. Take care of yourself and try not to get into trouble. We don’t need you banned from any more places. I am here for you as well and no matter what time of day it is don’t hesitate to let me know when you need me,” Ragnor said returning his friend’s hug.

The two were interrupted with the arrival of Catarina, Lydia, and Isabelle. They stepped out of the portal and looked around the courtyard, stopping when they spotted Magnus, his parents, and Ragnor. They knew they were in the right place. It had been a few years since Catarina had last been to Indonesia but it was much like she remembered it. She had come to know the Bane family quite well and had even spent some time in Jakarta when Magnus and Ragnor were younger. The two didn’t remember her, but she remembered them and the trouble they could get themselves into.

“Asmodeus, Melati it has been too long since we last saw each other,” Catarina exclaimed coming up to the two of them.

“Catarina it is good to see you as well. You will have to return sometime so we can catch up. You remember Magnus and Ragnor,” Asmodeus asked greeting Catarina.

“Yes, I remember the two of them. Are they still the troublemakers they were when they were younger or did, they grow out of that?” inquired Catarina looking at the two boys.

“They are still the troublemakers they were when they were younger. I think that actually go worse the older they got. They have been banned from a few places here in the city,” Melati responded moving to give her friend a hug.

“Well I guess some people never grow up and probably never will. Our time here is limited as Lydia and Isabelle both have some pressing things to return to. We will have to catch up later. Ragnor if you will,” Catarina said turning to face the two boys.

Ragnor stepped forward to greet Catarina and noticed a young lady with blonde hair step forward as well. He imagined this was Lydia who he would be working with for the next few months. She was quick to take her place next to Catarina. She held out her hand to introduce herself to Ragnor and the two shook hands. Ragnor supposed they would have more time to talk later when they weren’t in such a hurry.

“Right, if you will Lydia think of the institute in London and I will create the portal for you two. Magnus, you and Isabelle will be next so make sure you have everything you need and take the time to say a farewell to your parents,” Catarina stated preparing to open the portal for Ragnor and Lydia to go through.

Magnus face his parents and knew that this would be the last time that he would get to see them for quite some time. He had so much he wanted to say, but knew that there wasn’t time to say everything he wanted to. 

“Mother, Father I don’t know what to say. I will miss you and hope that all will be well with you here. I will do my best to continue you to make you proud of me. I couldn’t have asked for better parents or teachers. You have taught me so much and I am grateful for that. I love you both and hope to speak to you soon,” Magnus said walking over to his parents. He gave them both a hug and held on tightly. He knew this day would come, but he didn’t realize it would be so hard when it came down to it. He was going to miss them and he was going to miss his home. He knew that he was needed in New York but that didn’t make leaving any easier. He was going to miss his home and all that was familiar to him.

Magnus’ parents gave him a hug and wished him luck. He knew that this was going to be hard and he was ready for it, but he didn’t realize that leaving his parents and his home was going to this hard. He watched as Ragnor and Lydia walked through the portal to London, he was going to miss his best friend and parabatai. He hadn’t been separated from Ragnor in years and this was going to be hard for him. He hoped that his friend would be well and that he would be as well. This was a growing experience for them both.

Catarina watched as Ragnor and Lydia walked through the portal and arrive safely in London. She then changed the destination of the open portal to the New York Institute. Catarina motioned for Magnus and Isabelle to step towards the portal. Magnus took one last look at his parents and followed Isabelle through the portal. He knew that Isabelle would lead him to where he needed to go, and he was ready for the next adventure in his life. Catarina followed the two through the portal after looking back at her old friends. The portal closed behind the three and Magnus knew that he was ready for the next step in his life.

__________________

He had spent the last two days working with Simon and going over the importance of learning the basics. Simon had caught on quickly and knew that he would be a quick study for what was he planned next. He watched as Simon practice blocking and throwing punches. The moves were starting to become fluid and more natural to Simon, he could tell that the boy had been practicing outside of their training sessions. He continued to watch Simon throw his punches and practicing the blocking moves as well. 

“Simon you are doing a great job. It looks like you have been practicing what I went over with you the last few days,” he said walking up to Simon.

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate all that you have taught me so far. I know you are only doing this in hopes of gaining your freedom, but I really do appreciate it. All my life I have been bullied because of who I am and the fact that I am a bit of a geek and maybe this will help me have more confidence in myself,” Simon stated turning to face him.

“Well you have been a good student. I think we are ready to move on to the next step in the training process. Your posture has been good and that will serve you well in the next part. We are going to work on kicks. There are a few different kinds of kicks and these can be used with the blocks and punches that I have been showing you,” he explained to Simon. 

He instructed Simon to move to the center of the room away from where he had been practicing his punches. He took him through the movements and the different types of kicks that he could use against his opponent. He watched as Simon followed his movements and caught on quickly to what he was being taught. He knew that this was still going to take some time, but he hoped that in a few more days he would be able to move onto actual sparring with Simon. He knew that there was still more work to do but he would continue to work with Simon. 

He was enjoying the time with the other boy and the fact that he was able to spend time with someone other than his guards. He had never spent much time with others that were his age, and this was something new for him. He would enjoy this time while he had it and the opportunity to train someone else to help themselves out. He hoped that maybe someday in the future he would be able to teach others the same things that he was teaching to Simon.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter for you all. I hope that you enjoy it. Thank you again for all the kudos and comments that you have given me. I hope that you continue to enjoy this story as much as I am enjoying writing it.

Magnus followed Isabelle into the courtyard of the New York Institute and looked around him. He had never been anywhere other than Jakarta or Idris and he was ready to see what a new location had to offer him. Magnus followed Isabelle from the courtyard into the institute, he recognized the operations center, they were mainly the same in almost any institute one went to. Isabelle motioned for Magnus to follow her to Jace’s office so the three of them could talk and get to know each other. Isabelle stopped in front of the door to his office and knocked quickly before walking in.

“Hey Jace, I just thought you would want to meet Magnus and talk to him for a bit,” Isabelle stated she walked into the office.

“Hey Izzy, you know next you might want to make sure that wait for me to answer before you just walk in. I could have been a meeting and you would have just interrupted it,” Jace complained standing up to greet his sister and Magnus.

“Sorry I’ll make sure to wait for you to say something next time before I just walk in. Anyway, I just wanted to introduce you to Magnus and help him get settled in,” Isabelle said motioning for Magnus to step closer.

“Magnus it is nice to mee you. I hope that you will settle in here. I look forward to working with you and getting to know you. I’m sure you will be a great addition to New York. You will work mainly with Isabelle and on occasion with me. I have other responsibilities as well so when neither Isabelle nor I are available then you will report to my second, Andrew Underhill,” Jace explained.

“Jace it is nice to meet you. I hope that I will be able to learn from you and your sister. I have heard a lot about the changes that you have made, and I hope that I will be able to contribute to them,” Magnus said as he walked forward to shake Jace’s hand.

“I will leave in Isabelle’s capable hands and let you get settled in. I know this is going to be a good fit for you and I think this will help to make things even better here and at other institutes across the country and around the world. I spoke with the Clave about your ideas and what you have been doing in Jakarta. I think that can be beneficial to us,” Jace replied.

“Jace, I will let you get back to what you were doing. I expect to be busy with Magnus for the rest of the afternoon. Let me know if you need me for anything I shouldn’t be too far away,” Isabelle said preparing to leave Jace’s office.

“Makes sense and I hope that you settle in nicely. Enjoy the rest of your day Magnus and I hope we will get more time to talk later,” Jace said going to back to the paperwork that was on his desk.

Magnus followed Isabelle from Jace’s office. She told him that she was going to show him his room and the other important locations in the institute. While most places were similar to his home institute there were other differences and that is what would take some getting used to for Magnus. He paid close attention to where Isabelle was taking him. He hoped that he would remember how to get back.

“Here is your room. I hope that I will work for you. I know you had mentioned that you wanted a room that had a decent closet. Next to my room this one has the best closet. I hope it will work for you. I’ll give you a minute to look around and then show you around the rest of the institute,” Isabelle explained showing Magnus his room.

“Thank you, Isabelle. I’m sure the closet space will be adequate. I’m used to having a lot of space to store my stuff, but I can adjust if there isn’t enough space,” Magnus said following Isabelle into the room.

“You can call me Izzy. Only my parents call me Isabelle and that is when they are unhappy with me and something that I have done. Which considering me, I’m always in some sort of trouble so my parents say my full name quite often.”

“That sounds a lot like me and my best friend. My parents were always after the two of us for the trouble that we somehow managed to get ourselves into. I think you are, and I are going to be great friends. If you are as much of a troublemaker as I was when I was younger.”

“Magnus judging by the amount of clothes that you had sent here and the amazing taste you have in fashion and the trouble you say you got yourself into, I think we will be great friends. I’m looking forward to getting to know you and showing you around New York.”

“Izzy you seem like the type of person that I want to be friends with, and I think we can learn a lot from each other. Well show me what else the institute has to offer. I know there are differences and I hope that I will be comfortable here.”

The two left Magnus’ room and Izzy showed him where the essential rooms were. They went over the location of the weapons room, the training room, and the infirmary. Magnus knew that it would take him some time to get used to how things were running at the institute, but he was impressed by the way the older shadowhunters interacted with Jace and Izzy. He could see the way they respected them and knew that there weren’t a lot of hard feelings from the shadowhunters who had decades more experience on the other two. They lead by example and took everyone’s opinion into consideration before making a final decision. That’s what Magnus saw as Izzy took him around the institute and introduced him to several of the shadowhunters working there. 

He noticed as they walked through the institute that everyone had a purpose to what they were doing. They moved with an intent and didn’t take their time getting from point A to point B. Jace had the institute running like a well-oiled machine and the shadowhunters responded to it. He also noticed that there was one corridor that Izzy didn’t take him down. There was something about the corridor that caught his attention. It was the only place in the institute that had guards stationed outside the doors. He thought that was odd.

“Izzy, is there a reason why there are guards down this corridor?” Magnus asked as they walked past.

“What do you mean. There aren’t any guards down there. This corridor hasn’t been used in years. There was an incident there when I was younger, and it hasn’t been used since. My parents made some changes and remodeled some other areas in the institute to make up for the space that was lost because the area was deemed unable to be used safely,” Izzy replied looking where Magnus’ attention was.

“Are you sure? I see two guards outside one of the rooms, it just seems strange to me that they would be there especially if you say this area has been blocked off and unused for years,” Magnus stated feeling confused by Izzy’s response.

“I walk pass this area on a daily basis and have never seen any guards down that way. I don’t know you may just be imagining things,” Izzy stated moving pass the corridor.

Magnus shook his head. He didn’t understand how Izzy couldn’t see the guards. They were very clear for him and it seemed strange to him that they were there. If there were any prisoners in the institute then they would be downstairs until they could be relocated to the Silent City. He followed Izzy and figured he would look into this some more and hope that it would make some more sense to him.

_________________

He watched as Simon went through the movements for the kicks. He knew Simon was unfamiliar with them and it showed. His movements weren’t as smooth as his blocks and punches had been earlier. He watched Simon for a little bit longer and then noticed the guard walk further into the training room. He knew that was the signal that they were done for the day. He walked towards Simon and signaled for him to stop.

“Simon that’s it for the day. Keep working on your kicks and don’t forget to practice what we went over earlier as well. I am impressed with how for you have come up to this point,” he said moving to put the stuff away.

“Thank you, sir. I know this is a different experience for you, but I am learning a lot and I hope that I don’t disappoint you when I come back,” Simon said following him to the door.

“You aren’t a disappointment Simon. You are a change to my normal routine and that is always a nice change for me. Keep practicing and you may have a chance at beating me,” he said moving towards his room.

“Thank you that really does mean a lot to me,” Simon replied and followed the guard away from the other boys’ room. 

He didn’t know where Simon went when they weren’t in the training room. He imagined that he had access to other parts of the building that they were staying in. He noticed that Simon wasn’t kept in shackles like he was, and it seemed like he had more freedom then he did. He wanted to be able to move about more freely but knew that that wasn’t going to happen unless Simon beat him in the next few weeks. He had to come up with a plan to have Simon beat without it being obvious that he rigged the fight.  
He entered his room and knew that dinner would be brought around shortly. He knew he had time read a little bit before dinner would arrive. He went to grab the book that he had been reading for the last few days. It was one of his favorites and one he went back to quite often. It helped him to be able to work through things and also allowed him to continue to plan for another escape in the off chance that Simon wasn’t able to beat him in the next few weeks.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is another chapter for you all. I hope that you enjoy it. Thank you again for all the kudos and comments that I have received for this story.

Magnus continued to think about the corridor he had seen. It just didn’t make sense to him that in all the institute it was the one place that had guards aside from the cells in the basement. He had talked to several other shadowhunters over the last few days and none of them had seen the guards in the corridor either. He was starting to think there was something going on that he didn’t understand. He left his room to meet up with Isabelle. She was going to introduce him to a few more people and also help get him on the rotation to get started with patrols in the city. He knew that for the first few patrols he went out on would be with Izzy and then he would go out with other shadowhunters.

Magnus knew he would have to think about the strange corridor later, but he knew it was something that he would figure out. If there was something he liked as much as getting into trouble with Ragnor, it was solving a good mystery, and this seemed like a good one. He headed towards the weapons room which is usually where Izzy could be found if she was not in the morgue.

“Good morning Magnus. How are you adjusting to being here?” Izzy asked as he walked into the weapons room.

“I’m doing well. The pace is a lot quicker here than it is back home. We still get things done, but you seem to have a better system for making sure all the work gets done in a timely manner,” replied Magnus moving to where Izzy was inspecting some of the swords in the room.

“Well it was how my parents ran the institute when they were her and Jace runs in like that as well. There have been changes made of course but the sense of purpose still remains. Well for today we are going to talk about the downworld council for New York and the main members that you will see coming and going from the institute. When we go on patrol tonight it will be with some of the downworlders as well,” Izzy explained looking up at Magnus.

“Ok, I think I’m ready for this. I feel like I have met more people in the last few days than I have in my entire life. I guess it makes sense because we didn’t always get a lot of new people coming to the institute. I know it will take some time to get to know everyone, but I think I will get there.”

“That’s good to hear. I know there has been a lot thrown at you, but you have done a good job of keeping up with it all. You are the first new shadowhunter we have had here since Clary showed up a couple years ago. Though her story is a bit different than yours and one that she will have to tell you when you meet her.”

“That sounds good. I’m looking forward to learning more about the downworld council and how that works. I didn’t realize you guys went on patrols with the downworlders here in New York. That is something different and unexpected.”

“It is, but it is part of what Jace changed in order to improve our relationship with the downworlders. The main reason we go on patrols with them is that a lot of the issues we run into on patrol are related to the downworld and having a vampire, werewolf, or warlock with us can help diffuse the situation quicker than if we were patrolling on our own. They also help a lot when we are dealing with demons as well. The seelies don’t always patrol with us, when they do it is very rare for them to stay for the entire patrol shift. They answer more to the seelie queen than anything else and for Jace it is enough that they participate on the council.”

“Wow that is interesting. I know when we would go on patrol in Jakarta it was hard to get the assistance of the downworlders. A lot of them still have hard feelings about things that happened many years ago. Change is coming a lot slower there than it seems to be here.”

“Change has taken awhile to happen here. When Jace first introduced the idea of a downworld council in New York, the Clave was hesitant to allow it to move forward, but also the downworlders didn’t trust him to be transparent during the meetings and share all the information that he knew. It was very slow going at first, but it has made a real difference in the last six months that is for sure. It has helped seeing that Jace practices what he tells the various leaders in the meetings. He isn’t just a talking head to them, but he is actually still getting out of the institute and doing what he can to make a difference for everyone.”

“I’ve noticed that over the last few days. He is a lead by example type of leader not a do as I say even though I’m not going to do it. The both of you have a lot to be proud of.”

“Thank you. Well we have a lot to go over and not a lot of time. I have a meeting with Catarina about an open case that we have been working on together. I will try to go over what I can and then I will actually leave you in the very capable hands of Clary. You would be with Jace or Underhill, but they will both be in meetings until early evening. Clary will meet you in the training room after we are done here.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’m ready to learn what you have to teach me.”

Isabelle instructed Magnus to follow her to the back of the weapons room. She had set up a small area for her desk and a small table for Magnus to work on when they were going over paperwork and other things. Her plan had been to go over the various leaders and their seconds so that Magnus was familiar with all the important people in the New York downworld. Magnus had a notebook that he kept track of what Isabelle went over in their trainings. He wanted to make sure that he didn’t miss anything and also could write down any questions that he came across while he was going through books in the library.

Isabelle started with the vampires. She explained the leader of the New York vampire clan was Raphael Santiago. He had taken over the clan after Camille disappeared, she still hadn’t been located. Raphael was a fair leader and would always do what was best for his people before anything else. His second was Lily Chen, she was Raphael’s most trusted member. If he wasn’t available to talk to you then it was best to go to Lily second. She had his authority to do make decisions if he was not there. The two worked seamlessly together and did a great job at making sure the vampires under them were taken care of.

Isabelle then went on to talk about Lucian Garroway. He took over leadership of the New York werewolf pack about two years ago, right around the time of Valentine’s return. Isabelle explained that he was a former shadowhunter who had been turned into a werewolf many years ago. He had been exiled from the Clave, because of his being a werewolf, but he understood Clave law and worked to enforce as best he could. His beta was Maia Roberts, she also worked at the Hunter’s Moon as a bartender. She had been promoted to beta after the death of Luke’s previous beta during the conflict with Valentine. She was strong and did her best to take care of the wolves. She worked effortlessly to help improve relations between the wolves and the shadowhunters and knew that there were still improvements to be made. 

Catarina Loss was currently the High Warlock of Brooklyn. Catarina had been the High Warlock for the last 30 years and took her job seriously. She worked tirelessly to make sure that the warlocks under her protection were taken care of. She kept the wards of the institute up and running. She also came to check on the wards every six months just to make sure everything was still good. Her assistant was Tessa Gray. Tessa was unusual in the warlock world, because she was also a shadowhunter. She worked as a warlock more than a shadowhunter because that is what felt more comfortable to her. She would be around when Catarina was unavailable to help out.

Last of all was the Seelie Queen. The queen rarely made an appearance at council meetings. She would send her representative, Meliorn more often than not. Meliorn was one of the queen’s guards and took his job seriously. As Magnus knew, dealing with the seelies was often difficult because while they could not like they did have a creative way of telling the truth. One had to be careful when they were talking to a seelie. The seelies, although a member of the council, still held themselves apart from the rest of the downworld. They would help only if it would benefit them and then only as a last resort.

Magnus looked down at his notes and wanted to make sure that he had gotten everything written down correctly. He knew that there would be more people that he would meet throughout his time in New York, but these were some of the important ones. Once Isabelle was done going over the members of the council, she excused Magnus to go meet up with Clary.  
_______________

The last few days had moved quickly for him. The slight change in his routine made things less predictable and therefore it was easier for him to know that different days had passed. He was headed again to the training room. He was looking forward to working with Simon again. The brunette boy had improved quite a bit over the last few days, and he was anxious to see how he was faring now. The guards came to escort him from his room to the training room. He knew the routine by now because it had been the same for several years.

He entered the training room followed by the guard. He immediately spotted Simon in the center of the room warming up. He watched as Simon went through his warm up routine and practiced what he had been taught so far. Simon was moving more fluidly through the different movements with his arms and legs. He knew that soon he would be ready to start sparring against him and that is when the real fun would begin.

“Simon that looks good. You look like you have more control over your movements and where everything connects together. I want you to keep working on that and then we will go into combinations,” he said walking to the center of the room.

“Thank you, sir. I’ve been trying to practice when I’m not here, but I always feel like I am still messing up what you have taught me,” Simon replied turning to face him.

“Simon the one thing that you need to remember always, is to have confidence in what you are able to do. I have been training for as long as I can remember so a lot of this is second nature to me and I can do it without even thinking. You have only been doing this for the last few days so it will take for it to feel completely natural. If you keep doing this and keep practicing, then you it will start to feel better. Part of training every day is to help your body remember what you learned the day before or even days prior. Muscle memory takes time to build up, but you are getting there,” he explained moving to show Simon what he meant.

He went through several different combinations of punches, kicks, and blocks. After he got done with that he then went through the movements with Simon. Simon slowly caught on to what he was being shown and on how the movements went together. He explained to Simon that while it was good to know the combinations, it didn’t always work out that way in a fight. The combination may be interrupted by whatever kick or punch his opponent threw at him. He encouraged Simon not to feel frustrated but to keep practicing and informed him that at their next training session they would start sparring together.

The remainder of the session went quickly and before the two boys knew it the guard was stepping forward to escort Simon out, and to take him back to his room. He would get more time later in the day to work on his archery, but for now it was time for his next meal. As he was escorted back to his room, he looked down the corridor like he had done many times before and noticed something different. In the past when he had looked down the corridor, he wouldn’t see anybody moving about. He would only see the guards. This time though he noticed a boy around his age with dark hair. He was unable to notice much else about him, but it made him think. There was something about this boy that made him want to try to see him again. He took this as another sign that maybe things were changing, but he was unaware of how much they would be changing for him soon.


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter for you all. I hope that you enjoy it. Thank you again for all the kudos and comments that you have left on this story. I am really enjoying writing it and seeing where the story is going. Alec and Magnus will meet for the first time in Chapter 14. There are still a few more chapters for you to read before you get there though.

Magnus headed to the training room to meet up with Clary. He was pretty sure he had seen her around the institute, but he hadn’t been introduced to her yet. He knew she had played a big part in what had happened a few years ago with Valentine, but other than that he didn’t know much about her. When he entered the training room, he saw a red headed girl in the center of the room with a lanky brunette wearing glasses. He figured the girl had to be Clary, but he wasn’t sure about who the boy was. He stood and watched them for a little bit before making his presence known.

“Hello there,” Magnus said moving to the center of the room.

“Oh hi, how are you?” the girl asked turning to face Magnus.

“I’m doing good. I’m Magnus,” Magnus said introducing himself to the girl.

“I’m Clary and this is Simon,” Clary said introducing herself and her friend to Magnus. “Izzy has told me a little of what she knows about you. I’m looking forward to getting to know you.”

“I’m looking forward to getting to know you as well. I haven’t heard anything about Simon though and it is nice to meet you as well,” Magnus stated turning to face Simon.

“Hello. I’m Clary’s best friend but I’m just a mundane. I don’t have any special powers or anything, but they still let me hang around,” Simon said moving to shake Magnus’ hand.

“Well it is nice to meet you as well Simon. I’m sure you must be a pretty great person if they are letting you hang out at the institute,” Magnus exclaimed.

“I would love to stay and talk more, but I do have some things that I need to be doing. Clary I will see you later and Magnus, I hope I get to know you better as well,” stated Simon turning to leave the room.

“Thanks Si, I’ll talk to you later and see you at your gig on Friday,” Clary mentioned as she watched Simon leave.

Magnus stood watching the interaction between the two friends and missed his own friend. He made a mental note to try calling Ragnor later to see how he was doing. He could feel that he was fine through their bond, but it was different not being able to see him every day. He was settling in fine, but he still missed his friend. Magnus watched as Simon left the training room and moved to start warming up. With everything that had happened over the last week he hadn’t had a chance to really train like he did back home.

“Ok Magnus let’s get started,” Clary stated turning to face Magnus.

“What are we doing?” asked Magnus unsure of what he was going to be with Clary.

“We are just going to talk for right now. I know you were hoping to start training again, but in order for that to happen I want to know a little bit more about you. I know that you will be working primarily with Izzy and Jace, but Izzy wanted me to train with you. I still have a lot to learn about being a shadowhunter, but Izzy mentioned to me that you are a pretty good fighter and it may help me to learn from someone who isn’t Jace or Izzy.”

“Well what would you like to know? I look forward to getting to know you and helping you become a better fighter. I wasn’t expecting this, but I think it will be good for us. With being the newest shadowhunters in the institute we’re going to have to stick together.”

“Well just tell me whatever you feel comfortable telling me. I know that you came here from the Jakarta institute, but Izzy hasn’t told me more than that. I’ll tell you more about me afterwards.”

“Well ok then. As you know my name is Magnus and I’m from Jakarta. I trained my entire life to be a shadowhunter and this is my first time living outside of Indonesia. I am an only child, my parents are Asmodeus and Melati Bane. They are in charge of the Jakarta Institute and have been my entire life. My best friend is Ragnor Fell and is currently in the London Institute for his placement. Ragnor is also my parabatai, so us being separated is hard for me. We haven’t been apart for longer than a few hours since we became parabatai.

“Besides all the boring shadowhunter stuff, I enjoy fashion if you couldn’t tell by my amazing outfit. I like to read and learn new things. That’s about all I can think of for right now.”

“Well I guess that means it is my turn. As you know my name is Clary Fray, I mean Clary Fairchild. I lived the majority of my life as a mundane. I didn’t find out about the shadow world until shortly after my fifteenth birthday. My mom had been taking me to a warlock to wipe my memory of anything to do with the shadow world. I guess it was fairly complex magic that made me forget something after I saw it. The warlock who created the spell for my mom was unable to reverse the affects without seriously hurting me. My mom was taken by my father when he was looking for the Mortal Cup, he was unable to find out where she had hidden it because she put herself to sleep with a potion, she had a warlock make for her.

“I spent the next few months trying to locate my mother. Izzy and Jace helped me to locate my mother and to also find the Mortal Cup. I may have gone against the Clave and broken quite a few rules while trying to locate my mom, but we were able find her in the end and stop Valentine. There are quite a few things that happened in between that. I’ve been here in the institute since we took down Valentine training and learning about how to be a shadowhunter.”

“Wow that is quite the story. You have been through quite a bit in the last couple of years. I couldn’t imagine learning about the shadow world with all of that happening to you. So is your mom okay with your involvement with the shadow world now?”

“She is adjusting. She wasn’t happy with me wanting to continue my training. She left right before I was born for a reason, but that reason doesn’t really exist now. She would love if it I would continue my normal life and isn’t too happy that Simon got dragged into all of this as well. Simon is my best friend and we have been through everything together. Even when I tried to limit his involvement, he still somehow managed to get messed up in everything. I think we were both destined to discover the shadow world together.”

“Having a best friend is the greatest thing in the world. I’m glad that Simon has been able to go through all of this with you. I know I miss my best friend and hope that I will get to see him soon.”

“I’m sure you will. It is strange though that they separated the two of you for your placement. I mean they don’t normally separate parabatai so that is strange.”

“It is, I don’t understand why it happened. My dad told me it was because of the trouble that we get ourselves into, but I think they also wanted to see how we would do when we are separated. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens. You mentioned that you have only been in the institute for the last few years. I have a question for you.”

“What’s your question? I don’t know if I can answer for you, but I will try to the best of my ability.”

“When Izzy was giving me a tour of the institute, I happened to see a corridor that had guards in it. I thought it was strange that it was the only corridor that had guards. When I asked Izzy about it, she said she didn’t see any guards. Do you know anything about this?”

“I know what corridor you are talking about. When I first came to the institute, I saw it and asked Jace about it, but he just said it was a corridor that wasn’t used anymore because of an incident that had happened a few years prior to me coming to the institute. I remember seeing the guards there when I first arrived, but I haven’t really been in the same area as the corridor since, so I don’t know if they are still there.”

“That’s strange. How is it that not everyone can see the guards there? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Unless there is a glamour on the guards so people don’t see them and ask questions.”

“If there is a glamour then how is it possible that I can see them? That doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“I don’t know, unless you can see them because you are new to the institute and the glamour doesn’t affect you. That’s the only thing I can think of.”

“That would make sense, but what could the guards be guarding? There has to be a reason why the guards are there. I could help you look into it when we aren’t busy with our other duties. I almost wonder if this has to do with the disappearance of the oldest Lightwood.”

“The oldest Lightwood, I thought that was Izzy.”

“No, Izzy is the second born. There is a little brother Max, but he studies at the academy in Idris. Jace was adopted by the Lightwoods when he was around 10. They had an older brother named Alexander Lightwood, went by Alec for short. He disappeared shortly after his 12th birthday. I guess they have been looking for him since, although others that live here have said they think they have seen him. I don’t know if it is true, but it could be worth looking into.”

“I think you might be right. I want to look into this, but I also need to focus on what I was sent here to do. I don’t want to get in trouble, but this is going to bother me until I can figure it out.”

“Well I’ll talk to Jace and see what he can remember from around the time that Alec disappeared. Maybe that can be a starting point for us. Well anyway we should get started here so we don’t into trouble with Izzy.”

“True. Let me know what Jace tells you. I think there really is something here.”

Clary and Magnus finished their conversation. The conversation hadn’t gone quite like Magnus thought it would. He learned more about Clary, but he also learned that there had been another Lightwood child. He wondered what could have happened to him and what that had to do with the corridor with the guards. They went to the center of the training room to warm up and get started. Clary watched as Magnus went through his warm up routine and started with what he was comfortable doing. Clary had her own routine and went through everything that she had been taught by Izzy and Jace. They continued on in the training session until Clary finally called it quits. Magnus felt good after the training session was over. He hadn’t trained since he arrived in New York and it was good to be back at it.

__________________

Simon left Clary to head to meet with his trainer. He was starting to wonder what was going on. He had mentioned to Clary that he was being trained in how to fight because he wanted to be able to better protect himself when they got into one of their scrapes. When Clary had asked him about who was training him, he couldn’t remember anything. He knew that he had a trainer, but he didn’t know where he went to train with him and he couldn’t tell Clary anything about his trainer. It was almost like his memory had been wiped. He remembered the training sessions, but that was about it. Simon continued on his way to where he was to meet his trainer. He entered the corridor with no one being the wiser and him with no recollection that he was still in the institute.


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter for you all. Thank you again for all of the kudos comments and I'm glad that you are all enjoying this story.

Magnus had been in New York for just over two weeks and he was starting to get a better feel for the way things ran. He had been on patrol several times and it was a different experience than back home. New York saw more demon activity than Jakarta and Magnus had returned back to the institute covered in demon ichor more times than he cared to remember. He had attended downworld council meetings with Jace a few times and was impressed with how the meeting were run and also how they all worked together to make New York a safer place for everyone. Izzy had shown him around the city, highlighting a few of her favorite spots and showing him where the best shopping was. He was adapting to his new environment, but he was still curious about the corridor with the guards.

In his moments of spare time he had asked around about the corridor. The answers he got were all the same no matter who he talked to. He was told repeatedly that the corridor was out of use due to an incident that had happened several years ago, although no one could remember what the incident was when asked about it. None of them remembered ever seeing guards in the corridor. He also asked as discreetly as he could about the missing Lightwood boy, but no one knew what happened to him. They all thought they had seen him on occasion but couldn’t quite remember for sure. To Magnus it almost seemed as if their memories had been tampered with although he couldn’t say for sure. He had talked to Clary about it a few times and she was just as stumped as he was. Magnus was starting to think that the eldest Lightwood’s disappearance and the unused corridor were connected, but he couldn’t quite figure out why. It was more just a feeling that he had than anything.

Magnus figured his next course of action would have to be asking Izzy or Jace about their missing brother. If that didn’t work, then he would have to try exploring the corridor on his own. Magnus was going to do everything he could to find answers and solve this mystery. Magnus had talked to Ragnor about it quite a bit and even Ragnor was trying to look for clues on his end but didn’t think he would have much luck since he was in London and not New York. Magnus had a few minutes before he needed to meet up with Izzy, so he figured he would message Ragnor to see if he had found anything out.

To Ragnor:  
Have you been able to figure anything out about what we talked about?

To Magnus:  
I’ve done some asking of people I know have been in New York over the last few years and they all say the same thing as what you’ve been hearing.

To Ragnor:  
That’s interesting, why do you think that is?

To Magnus:  
I think it is like you say, there has to be some kind of memory spell in place. It is the only explanation as to why they see the corridor, but they don’t see the guards at all.

To Ragnor:  
But how would a spell like that work on so many people? It would take a lot for one warlock to be able to cast it and maintain it on everyone in the institute or who comes to visit it.

To Magnus:  
Maybe you need to look in the institutes records to see if any warlocks make regular visits aside from Catarina and Tessa. I would think if they are on site, they would easily be able to cast the spell on anyone who is in the institute.

To Ragnor:  
That’s a great idea, but it might seem strange to Jace if I just ask for the records.

To Magnus:  
You should be able to access them from a computer in the ops center. Most records nowadays have a digital file. Also, since you are working closely with Jace and Izzy that may give you access to those files.

To Ragnor:  
I’ll try that on my next shift in the ops center. I’ll let you know what I find out.

To Magnus:  
I appreciate it. I’m invested in this now and am curious to see what you find out. Be careful my friend, you don’t know what you’re messing with.

To Ragnor:  
I’ll be careful and again I will keep you updated. I should get going, I need to meet with Izzy soon.

To Magnus:  
You’re welcome and talk to you soon.

_______________

Magnus headed to the weapons room to meet up with Izzy. Today she was going to have him help her wit the inventory. Magnus knew that Izzy liked to take inventory weekly just so she always had a good idea of what weapons they had on hand and also if they needed more. He wasn’t expecting to see Simon when he got there. Magnus had seen the mundane around a few times since his first encounter. He was usually with Clary, so it was a bit strange seeing him without the redhead. He hadn’t realized that Simon was friends with Izzy. It wasn’t really hard to see it, since Simon was rarely seen with anyone in the institute besides Clary. As Magnus thought about it, he had seen Simon around quite a bit without Clary or even when Clary was out on a mission or spending time with her mom when she was in New York. Magnus thought it was a bit strange that a mundane would be allowed to wander around the institute unsupervised. He could always ask the other boy what he was doing there but figured it might not be his place to ask.

Magnus entered the room and caught the end of their conversation which didn’t make any sense to Magnus. He figured he would just go back to his study area until Izzy was ready for him. He didn’t want to interrupt their conversation.

“Hey Magnus, how are you doing?” asked Simon catching the other boy’s attention.

“I’m doing good. How about yourself?” Magnus replied as he stopped his movements in front of the two.

“Doing good. Just trying to convince Izzy to go see a movie with me since she missed out last time,” Simon explained as he faced Izzy and tried to give her puppy eyes.

“How is that working out for you?” Magnus inquired as he held back a laugh.

“Well it doesn’t seem to be working very well since she is always turning me down. But I have hope that one day she will accept my offer,” Simon explained sadly.

Magnus looked over at Izzy who just stood there shaking her head and said to Simon, “You may just have to keep trying. You may get lucky and actually succeed one day.”

“Well, thank you for that advice and I will keep it in mind for when I try again. Well seeing as you are here, I will take my leave and hope to see you again soon,” Simon said tilting an imaginary hat and leaving the weapons room.

Magnus just shook his head as Simon left the room. Had he been paying more attention he would have been able to see Simon head toward the mystery corridor and enter a room. Magnus had instead turned his attention to Isabelle and what she was doing. To him, she seemed a little on edge and he didn’t think it had anything to do with Simon asking her out.

“Hey, are you ok?” asked Magnus as he got a little closer to Izzy.

“I’m good, just a little frazzled. My parents are coming in from Idris for a visit. It always gets a little tense when they are here,” Izzy replied looking up from her counting.

“Do you not have a good relationship with your parents?” Magnus inquired going to the area where Izzy wanted him to start counting.

“My relationship with them is ok, but they are very particular in how things are done. Jace has made a lot of changes since taking over as head of the institute, but our parents don’t always agree with the changes that Jace has made. I know they are older and have a certain way of doing things, but I wish they would understand that things change as the times change,” Izzy stated finishing the counting in the area she was in.

“Makes sense. I feel the same way sometimes when I’m around my parents. I want to do my best to make them proud of me and what I am doing but I am also scared that I’m going to mess up and disappoint them. I hope that your parents don’t make you feel the same way all the time.”

“It has been hard, but I think it has been harder since my brother disappeared. Alec was the oldest and he was being trained and prepared to take over the institute from my parents. Those hopes for him died when he disappeared. To my parents Jace and I have always been the wild ones, even when we were younger. Alec helped control us and helped us to think about the consequences of our actions. We didn’t always do that, and Alec was there to at least try to get us to listen to reason.”

“This is the first time that you have mentioned an older brother. I’m sorry to hear that he disappeared.”

“He disappeared shortly after his 12th birthday and receiving his first rune. There was something that happened during the rune ceremony, but I don’t remember what it was. Jace and I have talked about it, and he doesn’t remember it either. I know there is more to his disappearance, but I don’t know what it is. My parents have stopped looking for him, but Jace and I haven’t given up. With everything that we have going on, we just don’t have the time to look into this more. I know you are asking questions, just be careful and remember why you are here.”

“I will be. I think there may be a connection between your brother’s disappearance and the corridor that isn’t being used. I’ll keep looking, I was wondering if I could have access to the institutes records to see if there is a warlock who has had access to the institute on a regular basis besides Catarina or Tessa.”

“Of course. I’ll look at it and get it to you later today. Be careful, there has to be a reason as to why you are seeing things and making connections that Jace and I haven’t made. This afternoon after we are done with inventory you should be able to access all the records in the library. This will take you away from prying eyes and anyone who may report back to whomever had anything to do with Alec’s disappearance.”

“Thank you, Izzy. I hope that I can find answers for you and Jace. I’ll be careful.”

“Thank you, Magnus. You’re the first person outside of the institute to take an interest in this. I hope that you can find the answers.”

Magnus and Izzy focused on their counting and making notes on what weapons the institute needed. Izzy knew she was going to have to contact the Iron Sisters to see about getting more seraph blades, but it could wait for a day or two. Magnus didn’t think that getting information about Alec Lightwood would be easy, but he had a feeling after talking to Izzy that there was more going on then they had been told. He hoped that the answers would present themselves in the institutes’ records. He figured he would have to go back to the time Alec disappeared and work forward from there. He knew that he was looking for a warlock who had regular access to the institute and could perform a complex memory spell. He was glad that at least he had a starting point for his search even if it wasn’t much to go on.

_______________

He entered the training room and immediately spotted Simon in their working through everything that he had been taught. He had gone over blocking, punches, kicks, and different combinations. He had also started working with Simon on sparring with weapons. The boy was a fast learner and took quickly to what he was being shown. He could tell that Simon was practicing in his spare time, but he wondered where Simon went when he wasn’t with him. He quickly walked further into the training room and started warming up. Today would be a sparring session and they would be working on their hand to hand combat. He wanted to see how Simon would fare in a hand to hand session. They hadn’t done one yet, but it was time.

He saw Simon look up from his warm-up and smile at him. He continued to go through what he needed to do to get ready to spar. He had missed sparring and was looking forward to working with Simon and to see how he did.

“Ok, I think we are ready to get started. We are going to start with sparring today. I know this is the first time that you will going against someone real, but just remember you know all you need to know in order to fight me. Don’t second guess yourself, just trust your body it will know what to do,” he explained moving to the center of the room.

“I didn’t think I was ready to start sparring with you. I know that whole purpose of you training me is to see if I can beat you, but I thought we still had a few more days before we started sparring each other,” Simon said turning to face his teacher.

The two began sparring and he paid attention to what Simon was doing. He corrected Simon when he noticed his posture slip and when he second guessed himself. He wanted to make sure that Simon had the best chance to beat him when they sparred in a few weeks. He knew that the guards were watching and making sure that he didn’t do anything to give Simon an obvious heads up on what his strategy was. He had gone through every possible combination that he could with Simon and was impressed with how well the boy had done. They continued to spar until the guard entered further into the room indicating that they were done for the day.

He watched as Simon left the training room. He knew the boy was practicing outside of their sessions together and he was impressed with the progress that he had made in the last couple of weeks. He knew he couldn’t hope that this would be his only way out, and thus he kept planning his escape and knew that the only hope would be if he could get a stele but there didn’t seem to be a way. He would keep trying to figure out a way to escape just in case Simon didn’t manage to beat him. He didn’t know that there was already someone out there looking for him and looking for answers to his disappearance. The answers would come soon enough.


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter for all of you. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter. It is one of my favorites and you will meet the person who is behind Alec's disappearance. You don't learn their name yet, but you will get to meet them. You also learn a bit more about what happened at Alec's rune ceremony. There isn't a lot of detail yet for the rune ceremony but you will learn more as the story progresses. Thank you for all the kudos and comments and again I hope that you enjoy this next chapter.

He was woken up earlier than usual. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he knew something was different. He didn’t know how he knew; he just knew. The guard entered his room and brought him his breakfast. Normally he had time to go through his morning exercises before eating his breakfast not this morning though, the guard informed him that he had his usual 20 minutes to eat so at least that hadn’t changed. He quickly ate his breakfast and then finished getting ready for the day, which didn’t take him very long. Once the guard noticed that he was finished, he was taken from his room to the training room. The guard took him to the room but did not stop in the center of the room like he normally did. Instead he was escorted to a door on the other side of the room. He had never noticed the door before so that was new for him as well. The whole process had a feeling of familiarity, but couldn’t place why it felt familiar. If he pushed his thoughts, his head started to hurt so he had to stop.

He was taken through the door into a room and told to wait. He didn’t know what he was waiting for but he stood and waited. As he was waiting, he looked around the room, he noticed many different bottles with different colored liquids in them. He figured the bottles had to be filled with potions of some sort. He also noticed that there were different herbs and other objects in the room. He noted that the shelves had books on there that he had never seen before and many were written in languages that he didn’t recognize from his own studies. The last thing he noticed before the door opened behind him was a well-drawn pentagram on the floor but before he had time to really think about it, he heard a voice behind him.

“Hello my boy. I hope that you are doing well,” the voice said, causing him to turn around.

When he turned around, he saw a woman standing before him. She was tall, actually taller than him, with a strange look in her eyes. He took a step back not quite sure what she wanted with him. He took in her appearance and saw that she had long pink hair that fell in curls down her back. She also had caramel colored skin that seemed to glitter in the light. He also noticed besides her strange skin hair that her eyes were slit like those of a snake and when her tongue poked out it was forked. The rest of the woman looked normal but he still felt wary around her.

“Hello, I’m doing ok ma’am,” he said nodding his head in her direction.

“That is good to hear. If you ever need anything please let your guard know and he will relay it to me,” she said walking towards him.

“Of course, ma’am.”

“Now as for why you were brought here today. I’ve been told that you are progressing well in your training with the boy Simon.”

“Yes, he is doing quite well. We had our first hand to hand sparring session and he held his own against me. I can tell that he is practicing outside of his sessions with me and that is helping him in progressing forward. I hope that today we will be able to fight with sticks so I can see how he is doing there.”

“That’s good to hear. Remember the rules that apply, he must beat you in a fight two weeks from now in order for you to win your freedom. If he does not than you will remain my prisoner.”

“Of course, ma’am. I understand.”

“Now for the other reason you were brought here. I want to see how your magic is doing. The guard will release your shackles and you will show me what you remember of defensive spells and also your potion making.”

“My magic, but I haven’t ever used that. I know nothing about defensive spells or making potions.”

“You do, you just don’t remember it. I will help you remember so you can show me your progress my boy.”

“Of course, ma’am.”

The woman signaled for the guard to step forward and remove his shackles. He could feel his magic flowing through his body once the shackles had been removed. He stood still as the woman moved closer to him. She put her hand against his forehead and he felt the warmth from her magic as some of his memories were restored. Once he had his memories, he had the knowledge he needed of defensive spells and to make potions. He took another look around the room and realized that he knew the books in the room and what the potions in the bottles were. His memories of the room were returned to him and he knew this was workroom where he came every day after breakfast to work on and improve his magic skills. The woman snapped her fingers and his attention was brought back to her.

He immediately felt his magic just under his skin and knew it would be there for him when the time came. She threw a ball of pink magic at him and he created a shield with his own to block hers. It was second nature to him and he was able to defend himself from her attacks. This went on for quite a while until he was signaled to stop. He brought his hands down and looked at the woman. She nodded at him that she was satisfied with his progress thus far and the indicated that she wanted him to brew two new potions for her. The instructions were on his work bench and he had until lunch to get them completed.  
___________________

Magnus had been busy for the rest of the day after he had finished up with Izzy and had been unable to start looking through the institutes’ records until that morning. After eating a quick breakfast, he headed to the library to start his search. He had figured out the year and month Alec had turned 12 and figured he would start his search from there. He only knew he was looking for a warlock and for anything strange that had happened during Alec’s rune ceremony. He wasn’t sure what he would find but he knew there had to be something there that had been overlooked.

He headed for a computer in the back corner of the library that was out of the normal path of everyone entering the library. He didn’t want to be seen or asked too many questions about what he was doing there. He entered the information that he had been given by Izzy and started to go to work. He knew Alec’s birthday was on September 13th so he had started looking there. The rune ceremony usually took place on one’s birthday or shortly after that. From what Magnus could tell, Alec didn’t have his rune ceremony until a week after his birthday. It was noted that this happened because his parents had been in Idris on his birthday and were unable to make it back any sooner.

Magnus skipped ahead a week to Alec’s rune ceremony. The usual members of the Clave had been present at the ceremony. The Consul and Inquisitor were there along with one of the Silent Brothers to perform the ceremony. Alec was the eldest Lightwood and therefore the first to go through his ceremony. What was interesting to Magnus though was the High Warlock had been invited as well. He had never heard of a warlock attending a rune ceremony and made a note to ask Catarina about that. As he continued to read about the events that occurred during the ceremony, he also noted that the High Warlock had participated in the ceremony itself.

‘Why is the High Warlock even present at this ceremony let alone participating in it? That just doesn’t make any sense to me.’ Magnus thought to himself.

He was curious and made another to note to check into other rune ceremonies that had taken place at the institute. Once that was noted he continued to read and started to learn a little bit more. He could tell that there was information missing from the records. Almost like it had been removed to cover something up. He didn’t know enough about computers to try and do a search for the missing information but figured Ragnor may be able to find something if he could somehow access the computers’ databases from London. He would have to talk to Izzy and see what she said. The more Magnus looked into the disappearance of Alec Lightwood the more questions he had. Magnus did note that Alec went missing the day after his rune ceremony. He figured until he could see what was missing from the events surrounding the ceremony, he would at least look at the visitor logs and see what he could find there.

Magnus started creating a list of frequent visitors to the institute. The top of the list was Catarina Loss and Tessa Gray, but he noticed there was a pattern to their visits and they usually coincided with when the wards needed an update. Another name that he saw quite frequently as that of a Seraphina Rose, but oddly enough her visits stopped when Hodge Starkweather left the institute after breaking his punishment rune. He knew that Hodge hadn’t been found after he gave the Mortal Cup to Valentine, so he had to wonder if Hodge had something to do with Alec’s disappearance and the mystery corridor. Magnus looked back to see when Seraphina first started visiting the institute and noticed that the visits started about a month before Alec’s rune ceremony.

Magnus wrote down a few more notes reminding himself to talk to Izzy about Ragnor doing a deep dive into the institutes’ computers. He also wanted to talk to Catarina about being invited to the ceremony. The last two things he wrote down were to find out more about Seraphina Rose and Hodge Starkweather. All of Magnus’ instincts were telling him that Seraphina and Hodge were at the center of this mystery.


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter for you all. Sorry this is a little later than the other ones. My work has been crazy since we were able to open over the weekend and this is the first day that I have had off. I hope that you enjoy this chapter like you have the other ones. This is my longest chapter to date, but there are many things that you will learn and I imagine that you will have more questions after reading the chapter. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for all the kudos and comments.

Magnus was so focused on his research that he didn’t notice that he was no longer alone in the library. Izzy had come to the library after being told that he had been seen heading in that direction shortly after breakfast. She knew he was eager to start looking into her brother’s disappearance and the mystery corridor, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up that he would find something when others had been unable to. Izzy knew that there was a good chance that since Magnus was an outsider that he would be able to see things that others hadn’t been able to. Izzy hadn’t told anybody, but from time to time she would get flashes of memory about what happened to Alec, but they would quickly fade before she could do anything about them. She had tried writing them down but the more she attempted to focus on the memories the more they shifted out of focus for her. Izzy quickly located Magnus in the back corner of the library. He was supposed to meet up with Jace over 30 minutes ago and he hadn’t shown up. The two were going to meet with Luke about some pack business and then head over to Catarina’s to see about the markings at their latest demon sighting.

“Magnus have you been here all morning?” inquired Izzy stopping by the desk that Magnus was using.

“Oh…..hey Izzy. Sorry you scared me,” Magnus exclaimed looking up at the girl. “Yes, I’ve been here all morning. I figured I’d take some time to start looking into things since neither you nor Jace had anything for me before the meeting with Luke later.”

“Yeah, about the meeting, you were supposed to meet Jace 30 minutes ago. He’s still waiting but you might want to get going. He said he’d meet you at the front entrance. The three of us can talk later about what you found out,” Izzy explained as she helped Magnus picked up his notes and everything else.

“Izzy, I’m so sorry. I’ll pay better attention and make sure not to be late for anything else. There are a few things I noticed that I wanted to share with you. As you said we can talk about it later. Again, I’m really sorry and I won’t let it happen again,” Magnus stated as they walked out of the library.

Magnus quickly said goodbye to Izzy and hurried to meet Jace at the front of the institute. He walked by the mystery corridor and noticed the guards were still there. He also happened to see a tall woman with long curly pink hair walking in the opposite direction down the corridor. He would have to think about that later as he needed to hurry to meet up with Jace.

__________________

After Magnus apologized repeatedly to Jace for being late, the two headed to meet with Luke. Jace had asked Catarina and Luke while he was waiting to push back their meeting times since she was now running late. They both agreed to the new times. Jace disliked running late and did his best to make sure that whenever he was expected. He felt that arriving late was a sign of disrespect and for that reason he did his best to always arrive early or on time for meetings. Jace accepted Magnus’ multiple apologies but encouraged him to do his best to not be late for anything else in the future.

The two arrived at the Jade Wolf and hurried inside to meet with Luke. Luke had called the meeting to deal with some issues in the pack. Jace normally didn’t deal with these types of problems, but Luke had informed him that the pack issues seemed to be related to some shadowhunters in the city. Luke didn’t go into detail when he talked to Jace over the phone because he felt the issue needed to be talked about face to face. Jace knew the issue had to be serious if Luke wanted to meet with him face to face. While most of the shadowhunters were on board with the changes that had been made over the last year, there remained a handful who did everything they could to make his job difficult. He had slowly been getting them transferred to other institutes, but it took time to arrange the transfers.

“Jace, Magnus so glad you could come out of here to meet with me,” Luke greeted the two as they sat at his table.

“Of course, I understand it’s not always easy for you to make it to the institute and that you wanted to talk without possibly being overheard by others,” Jace responded.

Luke looked between the two of them before talking again. He knew this was a sensitive matter and he didn’t want to upset Jace with what he was about to tell him. He took a deep breath and started, “As you know I called you here because members of my pack have been attacked by shadowhunters over the last few days. The attacks have been vicious and my wolves have barely made it out alive. The shadowhunters have been taking trophies though, some of the wolves came back with claws and teeth missing. It has been years since any shadowhunter in New York has taken a trophy from a downworlders. I know it still happens; it just hasn’t happened for a long time.

“Now some of my wolves were able to get a description and the description doesn’t match any of the shadowhunters currently assigned to the institute. However, one of them does match the description of Hodge. I know Hodge hasn’t been seen since he gave the Cup to Valentine, but I’m certain that the description fits. I just don’t know why he would be attacking wolves?”

Jace had to think for a minute. He was shocked by what Luke had told him. While it was true that Hodge hadn’t been seen in over two years, it was also true that he had been unable to find him. “I believe you, but I don’t understand why he would be attacking wolves. That just doesn’t seem like the Hodge I remember. Although, I can’t really trust what I know about Hodge because for all I know that could be a lie. He could have been showing us one face while he was planning something else the whole time. I almost wonder if getting Valentine to break his punishment rune was part of his plan,” Jace said look at Luke.

“I don’t know Jace. I knew him when we were younger and if you were to ask me if I could have thought it was possible for Hodge to do something like this, I would have said no. Now I don’t know. I don’t really know him anymore. He spent a lot of time with Valentine after we left the Academy so it is possible that Valentine may have had more influence over him than we originally thought. I know that he was punished harsher than the Lightwoods were, and that may have caused him to go over the edge. We can sit here and speculate all we want, but I think we are going to have to look into the attacks more and see what the reason is behind them. The other thing that my wolves mentioned is that all the attackers had a rose tattoo on their right wrist. I don’t know the significance of the tattoo but is has to mean something so that may warrant some looking into.”

“A rose tattoo? That’s strange, I wonder what that does mean? I’ll talk to Izzy and see if she knows the significance of that, but I don’t think there is a group that uses a rose tattoo to identify themselves.”

“Thank you Jace. I was also wondering if you could spare a few of your shadowhunters to help watch over my wolves for the next few days. I want to make sure that they are protected and we can only do so much. I know it is a lot to ask, but I could use the help.”

“Of course, Luke. That isn’t a problem at all. I’ll talk to Underhill when we get back to the institute and him send some over to help you out where you need them. Is there a way you could get us access to some of the places where your wolves were attacked? I’m thinking that may give us a better idea of what is going on.”

“That will be fine. I’ll send over the reports after we are done meeting so you can look at them when you get back to the institute. Thank you Jace, and I hope this doesn’t strain relationships in the downworld.”

“I don’t think it will if we can get it dealt with quickly.”

They finished up their conversation shortly after that. Magnus had a lot to think about from the meeting. He wondered what Hodge was up to and if he really did have something to do with Alec’s disappearance over six years ago. He didn’t think that Alec was dead, if he had been, they would have been able to find a body. He just wasn’t sure what state of mind Alec would be in when he was eventually found. He didn’t know what Alec would have gone through at the hands of his kidnappers, but wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. Magnus followed Jace to subway and headed on their way to Catarina’s to meet about some demon sightings from the night before.

_________________

Jace and Magnus arrived at Catarina’s apartment twenty minutes later. Jace buzzed to let her know they had arrived and open the door when he knew she had opened it for them. Magnus had not yet been to Catarina’s apartment. She would normally meet with Izzy about the markings from demon sightings, but Izzy had been unavailable due to some other obligations. Izzy had asked Jace to meet with Catarina instead. Jace felt like this investigation was going nowhere. The more they looked into the markings left at the sight of the demon sightings the more questions he and Izzy had about what was going on. The demon sightings didn’t make any sense at all. They were just sightings from what Catarina had told them, the demons weren’t attacking. It was almost like they were waiting for something or someone to tell them what to do. Jace couldn’t be sure what was going on, but add this to the attacks on the werewolves and there was definitely something happening.

“Catarina, so nice to see you again,” Jace said as he and Magnus entered her apartment.

“Jace and Magnus it is nice to see you as well. Magnus how are you settling in here?” Catarina asked addressing the other boy.

“I’m settling in quite well. I’m getting used to the differences between here and Jakarta. There are more demon attacks than I am used to but I suppose that is because New York has more going on than Jakarta does,” Magnus replied looking around Catarina’s apartment.

Catarina invited the two boys to have a seat and asked if they would like anything to drink. They both responded that they would just have a water. They still had more to do after they got back to the institute and didn’t want their judgement to be impaired. Catarina pulled out the files that she had on the demon sightings and the markings that were left at each location. She hadn’t been able to make sense of them and was hoping that by having Jace take a look he may be able to see something she had missed.

“Here are the markings that we have seen at each demon sightings. What is interesting to me is that each marking is different. That is part of what is making this so hard, I know there is a connection but it is hard to see the actual connection because all of the markings are different,” Catarina explained laying out each of the pictures of the markings.

Jace took a look, “I can see what you mean. There is something similar about each of the markings, but you can tell that they are all different. It almost looks like they were drawn by the same person. I don’t think the demons can draw so that means there has be someone else there drawing these.”

Magnus looked over Jace’s shoulder and asked, “Can I move these around?”

Catarina looked shocked but nodded her head yes. While Jace had been studying the drawings, he had been looking at them as well. He could tell that there was a pattern to how they appeared. Magnus positioned them into the pattern that he had seen. As he moved each drawing, they could all see an image take shape. Once Magnus had moved all of them around, they could see that it was forming a rose. Each of the drawings had been the petal of a rose, there were still a few petals missing so that meant that there were going to be a few more demon sightings before this was all said and done.

“Wait a minute, I wonder if this is connected to the werewolf attacks,” Magnus murmured to himself, not realizing that he had spoken out loud.

“What do you mean Magnus?” Jace asked slightly confused.

“Well remember that Luke said that each of the shadowhunters to attacked the werewolves had a rose tattoo on their right wrist. If the drawings are forming a rose maybe that means that these events are connected,” explained Magnus.

“That’s a possibility. I wonder if Luke could get us a drawing of what the tattoo looks like so we can see if the rose looks the same. It can’t be a coincidence that we are seeing the rose now when you put the drawings together, but if there are people out there with a tattoo of a rose on their wrists then I would imagine there would be a connection,” Jace stated looking at Magnus and Catarina.

“Wait you said that shadowhunters have been attacking werewolves. Has anything been taken from the wolves?” asked Catarina a thought forming in her head.

“Yes, Luke mentioned that all the wolves had claws and fangs missing. They survived the attacks, but even that doesn’t make sense to me now that I think about it,” Jace responded shaking his head.

He didn’t understand how these were connected, but he agreed Magnus. There had to be a connection between the two events. 

“I think we need to talk to the seelies to see if anything strange has happened to their people. I know they don’t like to share, but Izzy may be able to get Meliorn to talk. I don’t really look forward to visiting with the Seelie Queen if I don’t have to,” Jace stated pulling out his phone to text his sister.

“You might be right. I think I remember hearing something a few years ago about a new group rising, but I don’t remember what I had heard about it. I can look into it and see what I come up with and let you know. Did Luke tell you anything else about the attacks on wolves?” Catarina asked looking at Jace.

Jace looked up from his phone and responded, “Yes, he also mentioned that the wolves were able to give him a description of the shadowhunters who attacked him. I will have to look into who the shadowhunters could possibly be and this is going to mean reporting it to the Clave. He was able to tell who one of the shadowhunters possibly is. He said one of the descriptions matched that of Hodge.”

Catarina gasped not expecting the answer, “Hodge, but what could he have to do with the attacks on the wolves and the demon sightings? That doesn’t make any sense. I know Valentine was a madman and had his own plans to take out the downworld, but I didn’t think Hodge would do that.”

“I thought so to, but we think that Hodge made a deal with Valentine to give him the Mortal Cup in exchange for removing his punishment rune. I would have thought that after giving Valentine the Cup that he would have stayed with him, but he may have had other plans. I don’t know what he was planning though,” Jace explained to Catarina.

“That actually makes. I mean why not make a deal with Valentine in order to get out of the institute and while everyone is looking for Valentine and the Mortal Cup he just disappears and waits for the right time,” Catarina said in awe of what they were talking about.

Magnus listened to the conversation and wondered if he should bring up what he had found out during his research that morning. He knew that Izzy wanted to talk to him about later with her and Jace so maybe he should wait. He figured that while he was there, he could at least ask Catarina about her invitation to Alec’s rune ceremony. That would hopefully answer one of his questions without giving him more. Magnus waited while Catarina and Jace discussed a few more things before getting ready to leave. Magnus took notes on both meetings because he wanted to make sure that he didn’t forget anything. He wondered if this had anything to do with Alec’s disappearance. There were a few things that weren’t making sense, but he would work them out and hopefully they would lead him to Alec. Jace talking to him brought him out of his thoughts. He knew that it was time for them to go, but he really wanted to ask Catarina his questions.

“Jace can I catch up with you. There are a few questions that I wanted to ask Catarina. I’ll explain to you later I promise,” Magnus asked as he came back to the conversation.

“Of course, I’ll just meet you downstairs then,” Jace replied and said good bye to Catarina.

“I’m sorry, I hope it is okay that I ask you some questions? I know that might be a bit presumptuous to just think you would be available to answer some questions,” Magnus said uncomfortably when he realized what he had done.

“You are fine Magnus. Jace and Izzy have both told me good things about you and I don’t mind answering some questions,” Catarina replied motioning for Magnus to ask his questions.

“I’ve been doing some looking into Alexander Lightwood’s disappearance and there were a few things I noticed that didn’t make any sense to me. The first one being that you had been invited to attend his rune ceremony and not just that but you had also participated in ceremony itself. Why were you invited to participate in his rune ceremony?” Magnus inquired.  
Catarina was confused, she had never been invited to a rune ceremony at the institute. She answered Magnus, “I have never been invited to a rune ceremony at the institute. That is an event for shadowhunters, not downworlders. We don’t have a reason to be there. Our magic would interfere with the magic from the angels as a shadowhunter receives their first permanent rune.”

“That doesn’t make any sense at all then. I thought it was rather strange that it said you had been there and that you had participated in the ceremony. It makes sense though that your magic would interfere with the blessing of the angels. I guess that gives me more questions than answers. I’ll have to keep looking and see if anything starts to make sense,” Magnus stated making another note in his notebook.

“Please let me know what you find out or if you need any help with your research. I know Izzy and Jace have been looking for answers for years in regards to Alec’s disappearance. They even asked me if I could look into, but I was never able to find out anything. It does sound like you are making progress though. Keep looking, but be careful. I think you are going to open up a can of worms that you didn’t mean to,” Catarina said.

“Thank you, Catarina. I better get going, I don’t want to keep Jace waiting too much longer,” Magnus stated and headed to the door.

Catarina watched as Magnus left her apartment and thought about what he had asked her. She did wonder why it would have said that she was at Alec’s rune ceremony when she hadn’t been there. Catarina figured she would take another look into the events surrounding the young shadowhunters disappearance to see if she could find something that she had missed before.

_________________

He took a look at the potions that he had finished. He wasn’t quite sure what they would be used for, but he went to add them to the collection on the shelves. He looked at the other potions and noticed that the majority of them were memory potions. Why would he be brewing memory potions? That didn’t make any sense to him. Before he could really ask himself to many more questions, he heard the door open behind him. He turned around to see the tall woman from earlier enter the room. She went to inspect his work to make sure that he completed the potions properly. This was a new potion for him that he hadn’t brewed before but he could tell that it had turned out the way it was supposed to.

“I see that you finished what you were asked to do,” she stated walking up to his workbench.

“Yes ma’am, I just finished. I was just getting ready to add them to the other potions on the shelves when you walked in,” he stated motioning to the bottles that were next to the cauldron.

“No these will go with me, my boy. I am pleased with what you have been able to do. Your knowledge of potion making is getting better and soon you will be ready to brew the most important potion of your life. I will be back in a few days to get you started on the potion, it will take a week to brew and get the ingredients added. You will need to pay special attention to what you are doing and make sure you don’t make any mistakes,” she explained picking up the potions.

He knew better than to ask questions. Every time he had asked questions before had only gotten him into trouble, but he did wonder about this potion and what it would be used for. “Of course, ma’am. I will wait for your instructions on what I need to do next.”

She smiled. Her boy had come so far in the last six years. He may not have any memories of what his life had been like prior to being taken, but he also had very few memories of what he had been through the last six years. That was all part of her plan and it was unfolding nicely. She just needed to make sure that he made it through the next couple of weeks and everything would start to move forward. Who knew that injecting a newborn shadowhunter with warlock blood would have such an amazing effect on the boy? While he wasn’t a full warlock, he had enough of her blood in him to allow him to perform magic, but not enough that it killed him. The balance had worked out well and her colleague in the institute had helped to move their plan forward.

She motioned for the guard to lead her boy from the room after she had taken his memories from him. She took his memories because she didn’t want all her hard work to be undone. When he had first been taken, he had tried to escape multiple times, but it had been a few years since her boy had last tried to leave so she wasn’t worried about him trying to leave again. She watched as the boy was escorted to the training room, with the knowledge that he didn’t remember the last few hours of his life. She knew it was risky to keep taking his memories, but she needed him in the dark of the work that he was doing.

His will was strong and would have made things more difficult if he knew what he was doing. She left the workroom with the potions that she needed. She grabbed a few more memory potions to help reinforce that the shadowhunters who were in the institute when he was taken didn’t remember anything. The one thing about a memory spell or potion is that it had to be maintained and she couldn’t cast a spell on that many people repeatedly, hence the reason why she had her boy brewing the potions. She left the training room and headed down the corridor unaware that she had been seen by the newest shadowhunter at the institute.


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the next chapter for you all. I'm sorry I didn't post anything last week. I was busy with my nieces and work and didn't have a chance to post this. I hope that you all enjoy it and we meet the Lightwood parents in this chapter. There is no reason to hate on Robert and Maryse and before you ask, they did not have anything to do with Alec's disappearance. I wanted them to be good parents in this story, instead of the bad guys that you read about so often. I will try my best to post every week, but there may be some weeks that I miss. Thank you for all the kudos and comments, I really am glad to see that people are enjoying this story.

He was back in his room, although he had no memory of what had happened since he left that morning for the training room. He knew the guard would be bringing his lunch soon. He took a moment to grab his book and read for a little bit before his lunch arrived. He tried to think back on his morning and all he could really remember was waking up, eating his breakfast, going to the training room, and then nothing until he got back to his room. He almost felt like there was something important that he needed to remember, but he didn’t know what it was. He focused as much as he could on his missing memories, but his head started to hurt again. The more he thought about it the more he realized that he never could remember what he did in the mornings before his afternoon training sessions.

He turned when he heard the guard entered his room. The guard placed his lunch in front of him and reminded him that he only had 20 minutes to eat his lunch. He nodded his head in understanding and began to eat. He quickly ate his food with tasting any of it and wondered what it would be like to be able to take his time to eat and actually enjoy what he was eating. He knew if he wanted to be able to do that, Simon needed to beat him in a couple of weeks when they fought. He had thought about the fight quite a bit and figured that the best chance Simon had to beat him was to continue to spar against him so the other boy was familiar with his fighting style. If he tried anything else, the guards could catch on to it and know he was letting Simon win. He quickly finished his lunch and knocked on the door to let the guard know he was finished eating. The guard came in and got his plate. He was informed that the guard would return in 45 minutes to take him to the training room.

He had some time before his session began and so figured he would plan his escape some more. He almost wondered if he could get some involved in helping him escape. As he thought about this, he put his hand in the pocket of his pants and felt a small bottle in there. ‘That’s strange,’ he thought, ‘Why would I have this in here. I’ve never had anything in my pockets.’ He pulled the bottle out to take a look at and saw the words restoration potion. He wondered what a restoration potion was and why it would be in his pants pocket. He had to of put it in there but he couldn’t remember ever even seeing the potion before in his life. He knew he would have to think on it and decide on whether or not he would take the potion.

The guard returned to his room before he could think about it any further. He quickly returned the bottle to his pocket and turned to face the guard. He quietly followed the guard to the training room. Out of habit he looked down the corridor and saw the man with the dark hair again. He looked like he was talking to someone but he didn’t see anyone else there. The man turned to face him and stopped moving. He could see that he was a shadowhunter because of the runes on his arms, but what really caught his attention was his eyes. The man had eyes that were green with bits of yellow in them and it almost seemed like he was staring straight at him. That didn’t seem possible though and just as quickly he saw him, he was gone moving in a direction that he couldn’t see.

___________________

Magnus and Jace arrived back at the institute after two eventful meetings with Catarina and Luke. They still had questions about what was going on, but it seemed as though the attacks on the werewolves and the demon sightings were connected. The only way they could connect them at the moment was through the image of the rose (the tattoo and the drawings). Jace knew it was a start, but there was still more to figure out. They were quickly met by Izzy shortly after entering the institute. Jace could tell that she had something to tell him. He motioned for Izzy to follow him and Magnus to his office where they could talk in private.

“Magnus, can you find Underhill and have him meet us in my office? I would like him to be aware of what all we found out today,” Jace explained as they stopped walking for a second.

“Of course, Jace. I will find him and meet you at your office,” answered Magnus turning to head to the ops center.

He started to walk away and quickly stopped when he felt as though he was being watched. He turned around and saw a boy, almost as tall as him, just watching him. The boy had black hair and extremely blue eyes. He was looking at Magnus as though he had never seen him before. He noticed the resemblance to Izzy through the coloring of the hair and some of the facial features and knew that the boy had to be Alexander Lightwood. He looked for a few more minutes before remembering he needed to find Underhill. He thought about what he had seen and knew that he would have to mention it to Izzy and Jace. Magnus was amazed to know that Alexander was in the institute and that made sense of many of the statements that he had heard of people thinking they had seen Alec throughout the years. He quickly located Underhill and the two headed to Jace’s office. They walked in when they saw the door was open. Magnus noticed upon entering that there were other people in the room aside from Jace and Izzy. He recognized them from pictures that he had seen and knew that they were Maryse and Robert Lightwood, former heads of the New York Institute.

Jace motioned for everyone to take a seat and closed the door to his office. The arrival of his parents had been the reason why Izzy was so quick to meet them. It was well known that the Lightwood parents did not like to be kept waiting.

“Mom, Dad it is good to see the both of you again. I’m sorry I was not here to greet you when you arrived. I’m sure Izzy told you I was out taking care of a few things,” Jace explained as he walked over to take a seat behind his desk.

“Yes, Isabelle told us all about your meetings. I imagine they were productive,” stated Robert looking at his son.

“Yes, they were very productive. They helped shed some light on a case we have been working on and a new one that was brought to our attention,” Jace said. “I just wanted to introduce you to Magnus really quick before we go to much further. He has been such a big help to the institute these last few weeks and we are glad to have him.”

“Well I suppose you can update us on that, but first the reason why we are here. As you know your mother and I have been in Idris since my appointment to inquisitor. We have been able to look into your brother’s disappearance a bit more. Consul Penhallow is aware of our research and sympathizes with us for our loss. However, she explained that since we have been unable to find anything over the last six years that we need to stop our search for him,” Robert explained looking at both of his children sadly.

“No dad we can’t do that. I know he is still out there. We just have to keep looking,” exclaimed Izzy standing to face her parents.

“Isabelle, as much as we want to believe he is out there all our research indicates otherwise. It really is like he just vanished into thin air. There hasn’t been a trace of him in six years regardless of what people have said, thinking they have seen him,” confessed Maryse her voice shaking.

“We aren’t going to stop looking. We just need to be more careful in our search for him. Jia cannot know that we are looking,” Robert stated looking at both his children sternly.

“Mom, Dad I think Magnus may be able to help. He has been looking into Alec’s disappearance and he may have found something,” Izzy replied looking at Magnus.

“Wait Iz, before we get started on that let’s hear about the meetings your brother was in this morning,” Robert commanded looking to Jace to start talking.

Jace looked over the room. He knew the conversation wasn’t going to be a good one, but hopefully his parents could help them connect the pieces together. Jace started talking, “Luke called me yesterday about some issues he had been having with the pack. Normally we don’t deal with pack business, but Luke had called me because it looked like shadowhunters were involved in the attacks. Just to clarify, none of the shadowhunters involved are currently posted at the New York Institute. The attacks on the wolves have been vicious and they’ve barely made it out alive. The shadowhunters who are attacking the wolves are taking trophies. The wolves are coming back with claws and teeth missing. Some of the wolves were able to give Luke a description of the shadowhunters who attacked them. Luke is going to send them over this afternoon so we can go through them and see if we can find any matches in our database.

“One of the descriptions that Luke received matched that of Hodge. Now before you say anything there is more and we can discuss is all after I’m done. All the shadowhunters who attacked the wolves had one thing in common, they all had a tattoo of a rose on their right wrist. I don’t know what the rose signifies but we will need to look into that.

“The meeting with Catarina was much quicker. As you know she has been looking into a series of demonic sightings that have happened over the last month with each of these sightings the demons haven’t attacked but a drawing has been left at the location. Izzy has been meeting with Catarina to figure this out. I spoke with her today because Izzy had other business to attend to. Magnus asked to look at the drawings and was able to figure out that each one was part of a larger picture. Each drawing is a piece of a rose. We think this may be the same rose tattoo that was seen on the shadowhunters.

“I don’t know what the connection is between these two events besides the roses, but I imagine there is something larger going on. I’ve already set up a time to meet with Catarina and Luke together to go over what we’ve found. Underhill, I know that you’re meeting with Raphael tonight about some clan business. Let me know what you found out and also bring up the rose drawings with Raphael, maybe he knows something. Izzy were you able to get in touch with Meliorn to see if anything unusual was going with them?”

“I sent Meliorn a fire message and will be meeting with him tomorrow. I’ll let you know what I find out and I’ll ask him about the rose as well,” Izzy answered quickly.

“Okay thanks, now thoughts anyone?” Jace asked looking around the room.

“Is Luke sure about the description matching Hodge? I know he hasn’t been seen in two years, but it just seems strange to me that he would be a part of attacking downworlders. When we were all in the Circle together, he was always more in the background and he wouldn’t participate in the raids that Valentine sent us on,” Robert explained hoping to make some sense of all he had heard.

“That’s what Luke said to, but he may not be the same Hodge that you went to school with. We think he gave Valentine the Cup in exchange for breaking his punishment rune and then he disappeared off the map where we couldn’t find him. This has been the first sighting of him in over two years and I think we need to follow up on it,” Jace explained to his parents.

“I agree with you. There is something going on and we need to investigate that. If Hodge is part of if then we need to find him and stop him,” Maryse replied.

“Well, if that is all for those two cases, then Underhill you are okay to leave. Keep me updated on your meeting with Raphael this evening and if there is anything strange going on with the vampires. Magnus if you are ready, we will hear about what you found out,” Jace instructed and motioned for Magnus to stand up.

Magnus had been listening to Jace’s report to his parents and the investigation into ongoing cases. He was a little nervous to tell them what he had found and also worried that they would brush off what he was telling them. He felt the things he had learned were important.

Magnus took a deep breath and started talking, “I was talking to Izzy a few days ago and she talked to me about Alec’s disappearance. I have been looking into the unused corridor here at the institute because I have seen guards down there. It didn’t make any sense to me so I wanted to find out everything that I could.

“I happened to notice that the corridor was unusable and Alec disappearing coincide with each other. So, I think the two events are related. I spent this morning, before going to meeting with Jace, looking at what happened around Alec’s disappearance. I also looked at warlocks who visited the institute frequently over the last six years. As we all know Alec disappeared after his rune ceremony, in looking at the records there isn’t a lot of information on the events that took place and the ceremony itself. The report reads like there is information missing.

“Something that stood out to me though is who was in attendance at the ceremony. There was everybody who is normally there, but it was also listed that Catarina Loss was in attendance at the ceremony and she also participated. Now, I know you are all thinking that’s impossible. I asked Catarina about it today and she was not present at the ceremony. She told me that warlocks being present at the ceremony would interfere with the angelic nature of it. I don’t know who was there, but I think someone was impersonated Catarina so they could be present at the ceremony for some reason.

“The other thing I found today was besides frequent visits from Catarina and Tessa over the last six years, the only warlock who visited was a woman named Seraphina Rose. Her visits started about a month before Alec went missing and stopped right before Hodge left the institute. It was written in the visitor logs that she was visiting Hodge, but I’m not sure what the meetings were about or why Hodge needed to meet with a warlock that wasn’t Catarina or Tessa.”

Magnus stopped talking for a moment to let everything he had said sink in. It was a lot to think about and a lot of pieces to a puzzle that was becoming harder to put together for everyone involved.

Magnus resumed his explanation, “Before we came in here for the meeting, I happened to look down the corridor that is out of use. I saw a guy with black hair and sapphire blue eyes. The eyes stood out to me because they are so blue. He looked almost identical to Izzy, which made me wonder if it was possibly Alec. I don’t know what he is doing in the institute, or how he had remained hidden for such a long time. It makes no sense, but I don’t think I’m hallucinating. I think Alec is here in the institute and he has been the entire time.”

Magnus finished up his thoughts and everyone just sat there stunned. He could tell that none of them knew what to say or even what to think. It was a lot for one person to take in and even begin to sort out.

Maryse was the first person to speak up and let the others know what she was thinking. Maryse started talking, “This is a lot to take in. I think what you are saying makes a bit of sense. I can speak for all of us, when I say that most of us don’t remember what happened the night Alec was taken. There has to be some connection to that. There must be a reason why none of us remember.”

“I think it is a bit of a coincidence that Hodge was meeting with an unknown warlock for months starting before Alec went missing and up to when he himself disappeared. Magnus thank you for looking into his and please keep us updated. Look into the report that was filed when my son went missing and see what was left out or removed. Use who you need to in order to help you out in recovering the information. Just keep your investigation under the radar so Jia doesn’t catch wind of it,” Robert stated looking at Magnus. “Report what you find to Jace and Izzy and they can pass it on to us.”

Magnus nodded to Robert he was at a loss for words. He wasn’t expecting their response to what he had told them, but he was glad he had the green light to keep moving forward. The meeting was finished shortly after that. Magnus was sent to the ops center his shift while Jace and Izzy had some other things to speak to talk to their parents about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think the mysterious bottle in Alec's pocket is?


	13. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have a spy in our midst, who do you think it will be? We learn a bit more about our mystery villain and what they are up to, not much though, can't give too much away yet. This chapter is not as long as previous chapters, but there is much to be learned. I hope that you enjoy it and thank you again for all of you who have left kudos and comments. It makes me feel good to know that someone out there is enjoying this story.

Raj stood in the corridor by Jace’s office listening to the meeting he was having with Izzy, Underhill, and the new guy. He had been instructed to listen and report anything that he heard relating to demon sightings and strange activity in the down world. He saw Underhill leaving Jace’s office and knew the meeting was over. He headed to the ops center to finish his shift there. Raj had 30 minutes left before he needed to head out on patrol. He needed to figure out how to lose the others in his patrol group so he could go report to his mistress what he had learned. Little did he know that had he waited a bit longer he could have learned more than just what they had answered about the demon sightings and the attacks on Luke’s pack.

____________________

The warehouse had stood unused for years and therefore, that made it the perfect base of operations for their team. They had been working on the plan for years and it was almost time for them to move forward with the final step of the plan. The werewolf attacks had gone splendidly and they had enough teeth and claws for the potion. They still needed to get vampire fangs and seelie blood, but both of those would happen soon enough. The New York Institute was being kept busy trying to figure out the meaning behind all the recent demon sightings and by the time they figured it out it would be too late for them to do anything about it. The potions her boy had created this morning were done to perfection and would give her the last few ingredients needed for the next potion without anyone being the wiser about it.

The last attack on the werewolves had gone accordingly, the tattoo had been spotted, it was known that shadowhunters had attacked the wolves, and Hodge had been spotted. When Hodge had approached her all those years ago, when Maryse had first been pregnant with her boy, she couldn’t imagine that everything would work out so well. She had been able to inject him with her own blood even before he was born and Hodge had been in the perfect place to keep an eye on him after he was born in order to continue the injections until he had turned five. Her boy had started exhibiting powers around his eighth birthday, but Hodge couldn’t get her anything concrete about his powers. She made the decision to start visiting the institute so she could see for herself what was going on with her boy. Right before his twelfth birthday she finally saw what she needed to see. Her boy’s magic was amazing and strong, it would work nicely with his shadowhunter abilities to complete her plan and years of hard work.

“My lady, the others have returned,” one of her guards stated entering the warehouse.  
“Thank you,” she said turning around, “Send them in. I’m anxious to hear what they have to say.”

“Of course,” the guard replied moving aside to let the others enter.

She’d sent a spy to the infiltrate the institute after Hodge had left. She needed to be kept up to date on what was going on, but without anyone in the institute knowing. She had recruited Raj, who served her well and later on Simon who aided her boy in leaving the prison she had created for him. Raj was an underling which made him the perfect spy, he could gather information without causing too much suspicion from those around him. Simon, although a mundane, was a good friend of Clary Fairchild’s and his friendship with her gave him access to the institute and knowledge of the shadow world.

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” she said facing Raj.

“Of course, my lady. All is going as you expected and the shadowhunters are still looking into the demon sightings and trying to figure out what the drawings mean. They met with Luke today about the attacks on his wolves and know that Hodge had been seen with them,” Raj explained walking up to her.

“That is what I want to hear. While they are chasing him and sorting out the demon sightings, I can make my move. My boy is close to being ready and will start the final potion when I have the last ingredients for him. I need you to take these potions and get them to my contacts amongst the vampires and seelies. They will see that I get the last of what I need.”

“Of course, my lady. I will make sure that it is taken care of. I will let you know as soon as it is taken care of.”

“Thank you, you have been a great help to me in making sure that things have gotten done.”

She watched as Raj left the warehouse with the potions. She knew that he would get it taken care of and get the final ingredients to her as soon as possible. The final potion would take a week to brew, but that would give her boy time to finish training Simon. She had been planning this for ages and now she would be able to meet her father and hopefully get his help in opening up his realm and allowing the demons that resided there, free access to the mortals here on Earth. She had researched for years to learn how to bring him here and knew that the potion was a major part of being able to bring her father here. There were other things she needed to do as well, but the potion was the first of the biggest thing that needed to happen.


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a little late. I have been busy with work and other projects. Thank you again to everyone who has left me kudos and comments. I really appreciate it and hope that you continue to enjoy this. We are getting closer to the first meeting between Magnus and Alec and I hope that you enjoy the chapter, but I also hope that you enjoy this chapter and the interaction between Ragnor and Magnus.

Magnus headed to the ops center for his shift. He knew that he would be at the observation desk and would be able to message Ragnor about what was going on. He had a lot to tell him and he knew that he needed to be careful in what he said around with other people around. There was a lot that he needed to process as well. Something about the rose drawing and tattoos seemed familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. He also thought about Alexander, who had been kept in the institute for years and wondered what he was like. He couldn’t imagine being kept away from his family and friends and not having contact with any of them. Ragnor had helped to shape him into the person that he had become as well as his parents.

Magnus pulled out his phone and his last conversation with Ragnor. He couldn’t believe that it had been two days since he had last spoken to his parabatai, but there had been a lot that had happened since he last talked to his parabatai. He would need to talk to either Izzy or Jace to see about Ragnor getting access to the files here in the institute to see if he could find what Magnus thought might be missing from the report about Alexander’s disappearance. He could update him at least on what he had found out so far and maybe see if he knew anything about a rose tattoo.

To Ragnor:  
Hey there, sorry it took me a few days to get back to you.

To Magnus:  
It’s okay. I’ve been busy here. I seem to have a lot more responsibilities here than I did back home. How is everything going over there for you?

To Ragnor:  
Everything is good here. Just adjusting to the pace of things here and the number of demon attacks that seem to happen here.

To Magnus:  
I know. I’ve noticed the same thing here in London. There seems to be more demon activity here than there was back home. What have you managed to find out about the mystery corridor?

To Ragnor:  
Well I was talking to Isabelle yesterday and she told me a little bit about her brother’s disappearance and what she could remember. It seems strange to me that she doesn’t remember more than what she told me. She gave me access to the records on the computer so I could do some looking. I found out this morning that shortly before Alexander’s birthday there was a warlock who started visiting the Institute and continued visiting regularly until two years ago. Her name is Seraphina Rose. I don’t recognize the name, but I may look into that to see what I can find.

To Magnus:  
That is interesting. I wonder why Isabelle doesn’t remember more about what happened to her brother? I was talking to Lydia about this and she mentioned that there weren’t a lot of details about Alec’s disappearance on record. You would think being a Lightwood there would be more information.

To Ragnor:  
Well that is interesting when I was looking on the computer this morning and checking records and the reports from around that time. There is a report that was submitted about Alexander’s disappearance, but it almost reads like there is information missing. It’s like it was originally there and then erased later on. As you know my skill with computers isn’t the best, I was thinking you may be able to look at them.

To Magnus:  
That is interesting. I wonder why the information was taken from the file. There has to be something there that someone doesn’t want anyone else to know. Get me permission from Jace and will do my best to look at the computers and see what I can find. I think Lydia may be coming to New York in the next few weeks and she said I may be able to come with her. If that is the case, I will let you know. It may be easier to share what we find out face to face.

To Ragnor:  
That would be great. I’ll try not to get my hopes up, because you never know what could happen. There is another thing though, the mystery corridor became unusable around the time that Alec went missing. I’m pretty sure that I saw him today before I went into a meeting with Jace, Izzy, and their parents. I think Alec is being held here in the institute right under everyone’s nose. I can hear you now dear friend, and I won’t do anything stupid. I will keep looking and see what I can find out before I try going down the corridor. 

To Magnus:  
Well I’m glad to see that you are using caution for once in your life. You mentioned something about a Seraphina Rose, what do you think she was doing at the institute?

To Ragnor:  
I’m not completely sure, but I do know that she was coming to visit Hodge Starkweather frequently. I don’t know why he would be meeting with a warlock, but there are a few other things I learned today that may help us figure out what his motivation was. Her visits to the institute stopped right after Hodge disappeared from the institute with the Mortal Cup. We all know that he gave the Cup to Valentine. I would imagine that he traded the Cup for his freedom from his punishment rune. He hasn’t been seen since he left the institute.

To Magnus:  
Do you think Hodge might have something to do with Alec going missing? I mean there are a few things that are too coincidental for my liking.

To Ragnor:  
Yes, I think he did have something to do with Alec’s disappearance. He was spotted the other day attacking some members of the New York wolf pack. I don’t know what he would be doing attacking the wolves here in New York, but there is something going on. Right before I got here, there have been several demon sightings, but the demons haven’t been attacking. There have been drawings left at each site where a demon was sighted. The drawing is forming a picture of a rose. The other thing is the wolves were attacked by shadowhunters. The shadowhunter aren’t part of the New York institute from what we were told, but they all had a rose tattoo on their right wrist.

To Magnus:  
It sounds like you have quite the mystery on your hands there. What do you think the rose signifies and does it connect the two events?

To Ragnor:  
I don’t know what the rose signifies but that may be my next research project to look into that and also in Seraphina Rose. There has to be a connection to the two events and even quite possibly Alexander’s disappearance.

To Magnus:  
You may be on to something there. I will do some looking here on my part about the rose and also about Seraphina Rose. Send me the information for the computers there so I can see if there is anything for me to find out on there.

To Ragnor:  
Thank you. I will send you what you need after I talk to either Izzy or Jace about that. Let me know if you find anything else out and if you are going to come to New York with Lydia. I need to go, I’m on shift at the observation desk and don’t want to get in trouble for not paying complete attention to what is going on.

To Magnus:  
I will do that my friend. I look forward to getting the information for the computers. I look forward to see what I can find and I will let you know as soon as I find anything interesting. Take care and I will talk to you soon.

Magnus said a quick goodbye to Ragnor and then put his phone back in his pants pocket. He knew he needed to focus on what he was doing and make sure that there was nothing strange going on. He decided to look at the reports for the demon sightings and the attacks on the wolves to see if there was anything else that they had missed. He knew Luke had sent the information over, so decided it may be a good idea to go through it. He was looking at the areas in the city where the demon sightings had occurred and noticed that the wolf attacks had taken place at three of the locations where the demons had been sighted. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Maybe that meant that something was going to happen there and that is why the demons were spotted there. He would bring this up to Izzy and Jace later and see what they had to say about it. Magnus returned his attention to the computers to see if there was anything strange going on in the city. As far as he could tell, all was quiet in the city for now, but that could change in a moment’s notice.

________________

He entered the training room after guard and saw Simon standing in the middle of the room practicing. He knew he needed to focus on his training session with Simon, but his mind was on the potion bottle that was in his pocket. He couldn’t figure out where it came from and why he would take a restoration potion. Maybe he thought it could help him with something but he didn’t know what.

“Hi sir,” Simon said, pulling his attention from his thoughts.

“Hello Simon. I hope that you are doing well. I know that I mentioned that we would practice with weapons today, but I think we will do that later in the session. I figured we could start with a sparring session and see how you are doing,” he responded focusing his attention on Simon and the situation at hand.

“I like that plan. Is there a reason why we are forgoing weapons trainings for right now?” Simon asked moving to stand at the center mat.

“Yes, there is. I don’t know much about what will be required of us when we fight in a few weeks, but I imagine the majority of the fight will be focused on how we fight hand to hand and not with weapons. I still want you to learn to fight with weapons, but I figure if we fight more hand to hand that will give you the chance to become more familiar with my fighting style and that may help you more in the long run.”

“That make sense sir.”

“Let’s warm up and then we will begin.”

The two went through their warm ups and stretches. Once they were completed, they met in the middle of the room to begin the actual training session. He was surprised by how well Simon held his own against him, considering that he had only started to learn how to fight a couple of weeks ago. Simon was a quick study and a good student. He started to think that maybe Simon did have a chance at beating him without it looking like he rigged the fight in Simon’s favor. The quickly moved through many different combinations and the one’s that he noticed Simon struggling with, he would stop and correct him so that he could work on his technique some more. He wanted Simon to have everything he needed to do his best to beat him.

The training session came to a quick end with them finishing up with the wooden staffs. He figured that they would start training with training swords in a few days’ time if Simon continued to improve. He watched as Simon left the training room and thought about how he was the only person that he really had any interaction with outside of the guards that he saw on a daily basis. He wondered about the boy that he had seen earlier. He remembered there were times when he was walking from his room to the training room or vice versa, that he would think he saw someone that he hadn’t seen before but they would move so quickly that he wasn’t sure he had actually seen them. This was the first time that he had seen the same person twice. What did that mean for him and why was he seeing this person when he hadn’t really seen anyone else. There had to be a reason for it. He would keep an eye for the boy again and see if he could figure out anything else about him besides his eyes.


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has been so long since my last update. My life has been crazy with work and other things happening in my life. I hope that you will enjoy this chapter. We finally get to the first meeting between Magnus and Alec. I hope the meeting meets your expectations, but there is still much to be discovered and learned. Thank you for all the comments and kudos that you have left on this story and I hope that you all are still out there reading this.

Magnus finished up his shift at the observation desk with nothing crazy happening. It was one of the slower shifts that he had had since arriving in New York. There was a lot on his mind and more questions that he needed to find answers to. He had caught a glimpse of Alexander and he wanted another one. Magnus couldn’t get his eyes out of his mind and knew he would continue to do what he could to find out what had happened to the boy. There were a lot of things that just didn’t add up or make any sense to him. He wondered what Hodge’s connection was to all of this, there was definitely something in all of the things that were happening and had happened.

He was scheduled to patrol that night so he figured he would go to the library to do some research. Magnus wanted to see if he could possibly find some information about Seraphina Rose. He figured she played a part in Alexander’s disappearance, but he wasn’t sure what that part was. He also wondered if maybe she was behind what was going on currently with the demon sightings and the werewolf attacks. He just didn’t know what her motivation could be for all of this.

Magnus stopped by the cafeteria to grab something to eat before beginning his evening of research. He didn’t see anyone in the cafeteria that he recognized so he resigned himself to eating on his own. He figured that would allow him to go over his notes from earlier and write down some of his thoughts and the questions that he had. The more organized he was, the more he could keep track of everything and start to put the pieces together. Magnus was so focused on his thoughts and writing things out that he didn’t notice anyone sit down next to him until he heard a voice.

“Hey there Magnus, it is good to see you again,” Simon said sitting down next to him.

Magnus jumped in surprise not having heard the other boy, “It’s good to see you again as well Simon. What brings you here?”

“Oh, Clary and I are meeting up for dinner and I’m a few minutes early so I thought I would say hi to you,” Simon explained.

“Well hi Simon,” Magnus said turning back to his notes.

“How are you liking being in New York? I imagine that it is different than Jakarta,” Simon stated trying to keep the conversation going.

“It’s good. I like it, although it took me a minute to adjust to the differences between here and back home. Why do you spend so much time here? I imagine you have other things to do besides sit around and wait for Clary all day.”

“I like waiting for Clary. I do other things as well. I’m going to school right now and I have band practice every few days. I’m not here that often, I’m only here about once or twice a week.”

Simon’s last statement caught Magnus’ attention. He was saying that he was only here a few times a week, yet Magnus could recall seeing him almost every day since he had arrived at the institute. That was yet one more thing, in a long list of things that didn’t make sense to Magnus.

“Are you sure? I’m pretty sure I remember seeing you almost every day,” Magnus replied looking up from his notes.

“I’m pretty sure. I couldn’t come here every day because I do have classes to go to and other things to take care of. Plus, I know Clary is pretty busy with her responsibilities here,” Simon said.

“I guess that make sense, although it doesn’t explain why I’ve seen almost every day then.”

“I don’t know Magnus. Look I’ll see you around. I see Clary so I need to go.”

“See you around Simon.”

Magnus watched as the other boy left to meet up with Clary. He now had a new mystery to figure out. He was fairly certain that he had seen Simon at the institute several times over the last few weeks. Magnus almost wondered if Simon’s memories had been tampered with as well as those of the members of the New York Institute.

__________________

Magnus entered the library after finishing his dinner. He looked around and didn’t see anyone else so figured he must be alone. He headed for the same computer that he had used earlier. Magnus liked that spot because it was out of the way and he could work in peace. He quickly booted up the computer. The first thing he wanted to look for was to see if he could find any information at all on Seraphina Rose. He figured she had to have had some kind of connection to Alec’s disappearance.

He pulled up the records of known warlocks to see if the Clave had any information on her. He couldn’t seem to find anything that could connect back to Seraphina. It was almost like searching for a needle in a haystack. He kept looking though and finally found some piece of information from almost 75 years ago.

‘Seraphina Rose was once the High Warlock of Paris before being removed from the position for the use of dark magic and testing on mundanes. She is over 300 years old, exact date of birth is unknown. Seraphina is especially proficient in spell casting and potions, not as well known for her defensive magic. Her most common spells and potions are often used for wiping and retrieving the memories of anyone.

‘Seraphina has the unique ability to shapeshift and change into others that she has come into contact with or has a personal connection to. Her ability to change forms, is unlike that of an Eidolon demon and makes it hard for others to know what she truly looks like.

‘Seraphina is also known for creating the secret society known as the Council of the Rose, whose symbol is that of a Red Rose. Not much is known about the council besides the symbol and that it has been working towards one goal for the last 60 years.’

Magnus didn’t know what else was on file because the report ended there. He had learned a few things and he also took a picture of the red rose that was included in the report. He figured he could check to see if there were any books in the library about her. He continued his computer search for any information on the Council of the Rose, but all he could find was a name, Leviathan. Magnus knew the name having studied about the Princes of Hell for years. Leviathan was one of them. He just didn’t know what the council would want with him.

Magnus took some more notes and printed off what was on the computer for Seraphina. He had to figure that she was the one to tamper with everyone’s memories whether it be with a spell or a potion. What Magnus couldn’t figure out is what she didn’t want everyone to remember. He figured it had to have something to do with the goal the council was working towards and quite possibly Leviathan as well. He was also certain at this point that Alec had been taken by her to help in someway with the end goal of the Council.

Magnus finished writing down his thoughts from what he had found and decided to look through the books to see if he could find any more information on Seraphina or the Council of the Rose. He went to the section of the library that had books and information on warlocks. He knew some of those books were hundreds of years old, but he didn’t know where to start but decided to just pick a book at random. Magnus kept looking through the many books that were in the library and couldn’t seem to find any information on Seraphina or the Council. He decided to pull out one last book before he called it night. The book was titled “Secret Societies of the Down World Community”. He looked through the book to see if there was anything on the Council of the Rose.

‘The Council of the Rose was created by Seraphina Rose after she read a prophecy that would help to achieve what she had wanted for years. The prophecy reads:

One shall be born with the blood of angels mixed with the blood of a child born of Lilith

They shall be able to bear the mark of the angels and use the magic as a child of Lilith

This one will bring to pass the dawning of a new age, an age of chaos

All shall be set in motion after the child reaches the age of ten and two and begins to access their magic

After reaching the age of ten and nine, the age of chaos will begin unless stopped by the one with the green and gold eyes

‘The purpose of the Council is to bring about the age of chaos and to fulfill the prophecy that has been found. Seraphina knew that finally she would be able to reach her goal.’

Magnus didn’t see anything else in the book about the council. He was hoping that there would be more information but he couldn’t find anything else in the book or any of the other books in the institute. The prophecy didn’t make sense and he knew that he would need to look at it some more and maybe go over it with some of the others to see if they had any insight about the prophecy and what else he had found out. 

He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see who had entered the library. He saw the boy from the corridor earlier. He didn’t know how he had gotten there but he knew it was the same boy because of his amazing blue eyes. The boy looked confused about where he was and unsure about how he had gotten there.

“He..he..hello there,” the boy said looking at Magnus.

“Hi yourself, what are you doing here?” Magnus asked walking towards the boy.

“I’m not sure, I was in my room and had the sudden urge to visit the library,” the boy answered looking at Magnus closely.

“Ok, why the library though?”

“I’m not sure. I like reading and knew that there was a library here.”

“How did you know there was a library here? Where is your room at?”

“I’ve lived here my entire life and spent a lot of time in the library when I was younger. Not so much time after my twelfth birthday, but I just had the sudden desire to visit the library. The books that I have in my room have been read numerous times and I wanted something new. My room is in the west corridor.”

“The west corridor, but that corridor is out of use and has been for the last six years. No one has gone down there or used it. A new corridor was built for use in place of that one.”

“What do you mean? I’ve lived in that corridor my entire life and there hasn’t been any issues there. My room is there and that is where I have been training for the last six years.”

“What’s your name?”

“Alexander Lightwood, I don’t know what’s going on. I feel like there is a lot that I am missing and that I need to figure out what is going on. What’s your name?”

“I’m Magnus Bane. I’m new to the New York Institute. I’ve been here for about two weeks now.”

“Magnus, you’re the second new person that I’ve met in the last few weeks and I think you might be the most colorful person that I have ever met.”

“Why thank you Alexander. That is the greatest thing I have heard all day. What happened to you?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I know that I had my rune ceremony when I was twelve but most of the events after that are a blur. I was kept in my room in the west corridor and the only rooms that I had access to were my bedroom and the training room down the corridor. There is a workshop in the training room that I use as well, but I don’t spend a lot of time there. I have bits and pieces of my memory coming back to me, but I don’t know everything.”

“Do you remember your siblings?”

“I remember Jace and Izzy. Max is a little foggy. He was only three when I had my rune ceremony and so I don’t have a lot of memories of him. I wish that I had more memories of him but I don’t and that was taken from me. There was a lot that was taken from me and I wish that I could get that time back, but I won’t be able to.”

“How long are you going to be here. I can’t answer some of the questions that you have, but your siblings should be able to. Can I go grab them for you and maybe you can get some of your answers.”

“Yes, please. I would really like to see them. I won’t be going anywhere. There are a lot of books here that I want to read, so I will be looking at them while you are gone.”

“I will be right back.”

Magnus quickly left the library in search of Jace and Izzy. He knew that neither of them was on patrol that evening. He looked for Izzy in the weapons room, but couldn’t locate her there. He headed to Jace’s office and knocked on the open door. He went in after being told to come in and he noticed that both Jace and Izzy were in the office. He walked to Jace’s desk and grabbed a note pad. He didn’t want to say what he needed to tell them out loud. He didn’t know who was listening and didn’t want that news to be broadcasted to the entire institute. 

The two followed Magnus back to the library and were met with a surprise. They both stopped up short and weren’t sure that what they were seeing was really there. They weren’t a hundred percent sure that they would see their brother again, but that hadn’t given up hope that they would.

“Alec is that really you?” Izzy asked as she spotted her brother.

“Izzy, Jace I can’t believe that’s really you. I didn’t think I would see you guys again. You have to tell me everything that has happened,” Alec said turning to face his siblings.

“We will tell you everything, but first I just want to make sure that you are okay. You’ve been gone for six years and we haven’t been able to find you. I’m just so glad that we are able to see you again,” Jace said giving his brother a hug.

“I have so much to tell you guys and I will but I can’t do that tonight. I have limited time and will need to get back to my room soon. The guards don’t know that I’ve left and I can’t be caught out of my room. I know that I have an act to keep up and you guys will find a way to get me out of there. I’m being used for something and I don’t know what it is for. You guys need to figure out what it is and figure out how to stop her and Hodge. I need to get back now, but I will try to get back here tomorrow night around eight. Please try to be here, but I understand if you are out on patrol and can’t make it. I have to be careful she can’t know that I have my memories back or they could be taken from again,” Alec explained to the three.

“Of course, we will let you get back to your room, but we will try our best to be available tomorrow night. I can’t believe that you are really here and we will do all we can to get you out of there and figure out what your captors are up to. Is there anything that you can tell us before you have to go back to your room?” asked Izzy.

“I know that there is something that I am being trained for. I don’t know what it is, but it has to do with my training. I have been training for the last six years, with my fighting skills and also with magic. I don’t think I’m a warlock but I am able to do magic. I don’t know why that is. I have been working on my defensive magic as well as brewing potions. I don’t know what the potions are used for with the exception of the restoration potion. Most of the potions that I brew have been taken by her, but I don’t know what she does with them. She told me that there is a final potion that she needs me to brew. I don’t know what the potion is for, but there are ingredients that she needs for it and that it is complex. I will do what I can do figure things out but it may take time. I’m trying to earn my freedom, but something tells me that I’m not really going to be able to earn my freedom,” Alec explained.

“Just keep things together and we will look into what you have said. We will make sure that all will be taken care and we will do everything that we can to get you out of where you are at. We will protect you and do what we can to stop her. You mentioned something about a restoration potion, what is that for?” Magnus asked.

“The restoration potion restores the memories that have been taken from you. It will take a while for all my memories to come back, but I will also have to pretend that I don’t have my memories if I want to keep them and remember you guys,” Alec stated.

“That’s a good thing to know. That will be helpful if you lose your memories again, but it may also help restore the memories of Izzy and Jace. They remember next to nothing of what happened the night of your rune ceremony and I think that may be the key to figuring out what happened to you and why you were taken,” Magnus explained.

“I will try my best to get my hands on more restoration potion. If not, I will at least try to get you the potion recipe and you can see if there is a warlock who may be able to brew the potion for you.” Alec replied.

They finished their conversation shortly after that. Alec headed back to his room and knew that things were changing for the better. He had talked to his siblings that he hadn’t seen in over six years. He didn’t know why he had been taken, but hopefully his siblings and Magnus would be able to figure it out and get him back where he belonged. He hadn’t known what the restoration potion was for when he grabbed that morning, but now that he did, he would have to be careful and make sure that he wasn’t found out. He believed that his siblings and Magnus may be able to get him out of his prison and away from her.


	16. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again I apologize for the delay in posting. I know it has been quite awhile. I'm getting to the end of the chapters that I have pre-written and have hit a block in where to go next. I haven't forgotten about this story and will do my best to finish it. That being said I hope that you enjoy this chapter and if you have thoughts or ideas on where you want the story to go next please feel free to let me know, it may help me to get over this block that I seem to have. For now enjoy this chapter and Alec's first meeting with Magnus from his point of view. Thank you to everyone for the kudos and comments on this story. It means a lot to me to know that there are people out there who are reading this story and who enjoy it.

He headed back to his room after his training session with Simon was over. He was impressed with how the other boy was progressing and knew that he would be able to hold his own in a fight. He waited for the guard to leave to get his dinner for him before pulling the potion out of his pocket. He had been unable to get the small bottle off his mind during his training session. He figured that since it was a restoration potion that it had to restore something, but he didn’t know what it restored.

He kept thinking about it and decided the only way he was going to find out what it restored would be by taking the potion. He would have to wait until after he had finished his dinner and the guard was way from the door. This was a risk and he stood a good chance of being found out but he had to take it. There were so many things in his life that were out of his control but taking the potion was one thing he could control. He just didn’t know what was waiting for him after if he decided to take the potion.

He put the bottle back in his pocket and paced around his room. He kept thinking about it, but he also didn’t want to take a chance on the guard seeing the bottle. He heard the door open and looked to see the guard entering the room with his dinner. He grabbed the tray from the guard and took a seat in the corner of his room. He was reminded that he only had 20 minutes to eat and nodded his understanding to the guard. He didn’t really pay attention to what he was eating, since it never really changed, but instead thought about the bottle in his pocket. He was pretty sure he was going to take the potion, because he really needed to know what it did. He signaled to the guard to let him know that he was done with his dinner.

He waited a few minutes to ensure the guard had left to return his plate to the kitchen. It usually took them about 20 minutes to return from the kitchen and check on him one last time before leaving for the night. He had noticed over the last few weeks that the number of guards watching him had gone down. He didn’t know what that meant, but in this moment, it was a good thing for what he was planning on doing. He knew he had to wait until the guard was gone for the night and before the next one arrived a few hours later. The window of time was about four or five hours, so he just needed to be patient. He heard the guard come back and look in on him. He made sure to be where he normally was at that time of the night, just in a corner reading his book. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself and have the guards watching him constantly again. Once he knew the guard was gone, he pulled out the bottle again.

He looked at the bottle. He couldn’t believe that such a small bottle had been the focus of his attention for the majority of the day. He wasn’t sure why he had taken the potion from where ever he had spent his morning, but it had to have been important for him to take it. He wished he could remember what he had been doing in the mornings for the last six years, but there was nothing there in his memory. Whenever he tried to push the flashes that he would get, his head would start to hurt and he knew that he couldn’t keep pushing to find out what he didn’t remember or it would hurt him. 

He made his decision and pulled the top off the bottle. He didn’t know what was going to happen and that is what made him nervous, but he needed to know what it did. He put the bottle to his lips and drank. He waited and for a minute thought the potion was a dud and didn’t work. All of a sudden, he started to get flashes. He saw a girl with dark hair, the same shade as his, and a blonde boy. He knew who they were. They were his siblings, Izzy and Jace. They were both just under a year younger than him. Jace had come to live with his family when he was eight years old. He remembered that his name was Alec Lightwood, he was the oldest child of Maryse and Robert Lightwood. He also had another brother named Max. He couldn’t keep up with the flashes that were coming to him. He needed to write them down. He remembered making this potion and knew that it was for restoring his missing memories. He had also made potions that took away a persons’ memories. He didn’t know why he was making the potions, but he knew he had been asked to do it by her. She was preparing him for something that was all he knew.

Alec, it was good to know his name again, knew what he had done that morning. He had made potions one for draining a seelie of their blood and another to weaken a vampire so their fangs could be taken. He didn’t know what she needed with seelie blood and vampire fangs but he didn’t think it was for anything good. Alec also remembered that she had told him he was ready for something big. There was a potion that she needed him to make and it would be complicated. She had told him that there were still a few ingredients that she needed to get before he could start on the potion. Alec took a minute to look around his room and saw a door on the other side. He couldn’t remember seeing it before. He figured that it had been glamoured so that he wouldn’t see it. He had been in this room since he was younger and knew that the door led to the library. He had snuck into the library numerous times when he was younger and when he didn’t want anyone to know he had left his room. 

He knew that there were computers in the library, but he needed a paper and pen or pencil so he could write down his memories. Alec didn’t want to forget what he had remembered, but he also knew that he needed to pretend that he no longer had his memories. He didn’t want to make her suspicious. He hoped that door wasn’t warded so he could get to the library. He didn’t think it would be, but he couldn’t be to sure either. Alec figured the best way for him to find out would be to try the door to see what happened. He walked over to the door and felt. He remembered for certain that he had magic and he could feel it under the surface even though he couldn’t access it because of the runes on the walls in his rooms. His shackles had been taken off that morning and hadn’t been put back on. Granted without his memories he wouldn’t really have an idea on how to really use that power. 

He walked over to the door and tried it he was able to open it without any interference. He walked into the tunnel that he knew would take him to the library. There was no resistance trying to keep him in the room, so he knew the wards didn’t extend to that door. He would be able to go to the library and actually look around at a different location than the two or three rooms that he spent his time in. Alec wasn’t going to try to escape just yet, he knew there was still some more planning that he would have to do, but at least now he had a way out of the room without the guards noticing that he was gone. Alec made his way into the tunnel and headed to the library. Even though it had been years since he had last walked down that tunnel, he still knew the way. The path was ingrained in his memory and he hoped that he wouldn’t forget it again.

Alec reached the library and looked to see if anyone was there. He could only see one person and it looked the green-eyed boy he had seen earlier. He hadn’t been able to get his eyes out of his mind and knew that he remembered seeing him a few times in the last couple of weeks. That was a memory that he didn’t want taken from him either. If she didn’t know about the memories, she couldn’t take them away and he would guard this one with his life. He wanted to remember him. Alec watched to boy for awhile and could tell that he was researching something. He didn’t know what he was looking for but he was very focused on what he was doing. He wanted to learn more about him and he made him feel something that he had never felt before. He didn’t know what those feelings were, but he could examine them later.

Alec watched the boy moved from the computer that he was at to the bookshelves. He couldn’t believe that he was this close to him and that he was somewhere other than his room. He continued watching the boy and decided it might be a good idea to make his presence known. He stepped out of his hiding place and walked towards the boy. The boy turned around to face Alec and stopped. He looked like he was shocked to see him. 

“He..he..hello there,” Alec said looking at Magnus.

“Hi yourself, what are you doing here?” the boy asked walking towards him.

“I’m not sure, I was in my room and had the sudden urge to visit the library,” Alec answered looking at the other closely.

“Ok, why the library though?”

“I’m not sure. I like reading and knew that there was a library here.”

“How did you know there was a library here? Where is your room at?”

“I’ve lived here my entire life and spent a lot of time in the library when I was younger. Not so much time after my twelfth birthday, but I just had the sudden desire to visit the library. The books that I have in my room have been read numerous times and I wanted something new. My room is in the west corridor.”

“The west corridor, but that corridor is out of use and has been for the last six years. No one has gone down there or used it. A new corridor was built for use in place of that one.”

“What do you mean? I’ve lived in that corridor my entire life and there hasn’t been any issues there. My room is there and that is where I have been training for the last six years.”

“What’s your name?”

“Alexander Lightwood, I don’t know what’s going on. I feel like there is a lot that I am missing and that I need to figure out what is going on. What’s your name?”

“I’m Magnus Bane. I’m new to the New York Institute. I’ve been here for about two weeks now.”

“Magnus, you’re the second new person that I’ve met in the last few weeks and I think you might be the most colorful person that I have ever met.”

“Why thank you Alexander. That is the greatest thing I have heard all day. What happened to you?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I know that I had my rune ceremony when I was twelve but most of the events after that are a blur. I was kept in my room in the west corridor and the only rooms that I had access to were my bedroom and the training room down the corridor. There is a workshop in the training room that I use as well, but I don’t spend a lot of time there. I have bits and pieces of my memory coming back to me, but I don’t know everything.”

“Do you remember your siblings?”

“I remember Jace and Izzy. Max is a little foggy. He was only three when I had my rune ceremony and so I don’t have a lot of memories of him. I wish that I had more memories of him but I don’t and that was taken from me. There was a lot that was taken from me and I wish that I could get that time back, but I won’t be able to.”

“How long are you going to be here. I can’t answer some of the questions that you have, but your siblings should be able to. Can I go grab them for you and maybe you can get some of your answers.”

“Yes, please. I would really like to see them. I won’t be going anywhere. There are a lot of books here that I want to read, so I will be looking at them while you are gone.”

“I will be right back.”

Alec waited while Magnus went to find Jace and Izzy. He couldn’t believe that after six years he was going to see them again. He hoped that they were doing well. He knew that he had missed a lot in their lives and looked forward to being able to catch up to them. He knew that he wouldn’t have much time with them that evening but he hoped that he would be able to talk to them again after that night.

He heard the door open behind him and stopped when he saw Izzy and Jace enter the library. Alec couldn’t believe what he was seeing and unable to comprehend how much they had changed in the last six years.

“Alec is that really you?” Izzy asked as she spotted her brother.

“Izzy, Jace I can’t believe that’s really you. I didn’t think I would see you guys again. You have to tell me everything that has happened,” Alec said turning to face his siblings.

“We will tell you everything, but first I just want to make sure that you are okay. You’ve been gone for six years and we haven’t been able to find you. I’m just so glad that we are able to see you again,” Jace said giving his brother a hug.

“I have so much to tell you guys and I will but I can’t do that tonight. I have limited time and will need to get back to my room soon. The guards don’t know that I’ve left and I can’t be caught out of my room. I know that I have an act to keep up and you guys will find a way to get me out of there. I’m being used for something and I don’t know what it is for. You guys need to figure out what it is and figure out how to stop her and Hodge. I need to get back now, but I will try to get back here tomorrow night around eight. Please try to be here, but I understand if you are out on patrol and can’t make it. I have to be careful she can’t know that I have my memories back or they could be taken from again,” Alec explained to the three.

“Of course, we will let you get back to your room, but we will try our best to be available tomorrow night. I can’t believe that you are really here and we will do all we can to get you out of there and figure out what your captors are up to. Is there anything that you can tell us before you have to go back to your room?” asked Izzy.

“I know that there is something that I am being trained for. I don’t know what it is, but it has to do with my training. I have been training for the last six years, with my fighting skills and also with magic. I don’t think I’m a warlock but I am able to do magic. I don’t know why that is. I have been working on my defensive magic as well as brewing potions. I don’t know what the potions are used for with the exception of the restoration potion. Most of the potions that I brew have been taken by her, but I don’t know what she does with them. She told me that there is a final potion that she needs me to brew. I don’t know what the potion is for, but there are ingredients that she needs for it and that it is complex. I will do what I can do figure things out but it may take time. I’m trying to earn my freedom, but something tells me that I’m not really going to be able to earn my freedom,” Alec explained.

“Just keep things together and we will look into what you have said. We will make sure that all will be taken care and we will do everything that we can to get you out of where you are at. We will protect you and do what we can to stop her. You mentioned something about a restoration potion, what is that for?” Magnus asked.

“The restoration potion restores the memories that have been taken from you. It will take a while for all my memories to come back, but I will also have to pretend that I don’t have my memories if I want to keep them and remember you guys,” Alec stated.

“That’s a good thing to know. That will be helpful if you lose your memories again, but it may also help restore the memories of Izzy and Jace. They remember next to nothing of what happened the night of your rune ceremony and I think that may be the key to figuring out what happened to you and why you were taken,” Magnus explained.

“I will try my best to get my hands on more restoration potion. If not, I will at least try to get you the potion recipe and you can see if there is a warlock who may be able to brew the potion for you.” Alec replied.

They finished their conversation shortly after that. Alec headed back to his room and knew that things were changing for the better. He had talked to his siblings that he hadn’t seen in over six years. He didn’t know why he had been taken, but hopefully his siblings and Magnus would be able to figure it out and get him back where he belonged. He hadn’t known what the restoration potion was for when he grabbed that morning, but now that he did, he would have to be careful and make sure that he wasn’t found out. He believed that his siblings and Magnus may be able to get him out of his prison and away from her.


End file.
